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OF THE U N I VER.SITY Of 1LLI NOIS
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BOdK FOR ALL TRAVELERS.
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COKCIIK'S NEW
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RIVER GUIDE,
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GAZETTEER OF ALL THE TOWNS
WESTERN1 WATERS;
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SKETCHES OF THE CITIES, TOWNS, AND COUNTRIES BORDERING ON AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS, AND THEIR PRINCIPAL TRIBUTARIES; TO- :EIR POPULATION, PRODUCTS, COMMERCE, tC, &C, IN 1S4S J STING EVENTS OF HISTORY CONNECTED WITH THEM.
UPILED FROM THE LATEST AND BEST AUTHORITY.
wit; h f o rt Yq f o u r m a p s .
CINCINNATI, O.: PUBLISHED BY GEORGE ' ONCUN, NO. 39 MAIN-ST.
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GEORGE COICLII, BOOKSELLER, STATIONER,
AND
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Keeps constantly on hand, and for sale, a large assortment of LAW
MEDICAL, RELIGIOUS, MISCELLANEOUS and
SCHOOL BOOKS, of all the various kinds.
He alio Publishes the following Work*, tL*.j
Rollin's Ancient History, 2 vols., ; Gallagher's Watt's Select Hymns,
Life Blackhawk, American Common School Primer, " Daniel Boone, " « « Reader,
New History Texas & Mexican War, Primary do.
" " Oregon & California, Elementary do.
First White Man of the West, Hall's Western Reader,
Practical Farmer, Gardener, &c, j Map of Ohio and Mississippi Rivers,
Western Pilot.
Maps of Western Rivers.
CONTAINING SKETCHES OF ALL THE CITIES AND TOWNS ON THE OHIO AND
MISSISSIPPI RIVERS, AND THEIR PRINCIPAL TRIBUTARIES, WITH THEIR
POPULATION, PRODUCTS, COMMERCE, &C, AND MANY INTEREST-
INC EVENTS OF HISTORY CONNECTED WITH THEM.
ALSO, A
GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF STATIONERY
AND
He also manufactures, and keeps constantly on hand,
STEAMBOAT BOOKS,
and Blank Books, of every description in common use. He also makes to order, Blank Books of any pattern, and in a style that will give satisfaction.
II E> RAR.Y
OF THE UNIVERSITY Of ILLINOIS
UiHS;S KWJCAl SUMH
A BOOK FOR ALL TRAVELERS.
CONCLINS' NEW
OR
A GAZETTEER OF ALL THE TOWNS
ON THE
rEP
STERN WATERS:
CONTAINING
SKETCHES OF THE CITIES, TOWNS, AND COUNTRIES BORDERING ON
THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS, AND THEIR PRINCIPAL
TRIBUTARIES; TOGETHER WITH THEIR POPULATION,
PRODUCTS, COMMERCE, &C, &C, IN 1848; AND
MANY INTERESTING EVENTS OF HISTORY
CONNECTED WITH THEM.
COMPILED FROM THE LATEST AND BEST AUTHORITY
WITH FORTY-FOUR MAPS.
CINCINNATI, O.: PUBLISHED BY GEORGE CONCLIN, NO. 39 MAIN-ST.
1849.
TO THE PUBLIC
The Traveling community has long demanded a book that would point out to them, as they passed up or down our Western waters, the different localities, and give some accurate account of their his- tory, population, commerce, pursuits, &c, and the character of the country in the interior. To supply this demand, the Publisher has, at great labor and expense, collected the information contained in the following pages, and now presents it to the reader, with the hope that it may prove useful and interesting.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by
GEORGE CONCLIN,
In the Clerk's office for the District Court of Ohio.
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"3\ V. V SCENES
ON
THE WESTERN WATERS.
THE OHIO RIVER
Is formed by the union of the Alleghany and Monongahela, at Pitts- burgh. No river in the world rolls, for the same distance, such a uniform, smooth and placid current. Its banks are generally high and precipitous— rising into bluffs and cliffs, sometimes to the' height of three hundred feet." Between these bluffs and the river, there is generally a strip of land, of equal width, called botto?n. These bluffs exhibit a wild, a picturesque grandeur, which those who have never viewed nature in her primitive and unspoiled state, can hardly imag- ine. Dense and interminable forests — trees of the most gigantic size, casting their broad shadows into the placid stream — the luxuriant and mammoth growth of the timber in the bottoms— the meander- ings and frequent bends of the river, and the numberless beautiful wooded islands, all of which, in rapid succession, shift and vary the scene to the eye. as you float down the endless maze before you, are calculated to fix upon the mind an indelible impression.
Between Pittsburgh and the mouth of the Ohio, there are one hun- dred considerable islands, besides a great number of tow-heads and sand-bars. Some of these islands are of exquisite beauty, covered with trees of the most delicate foliage, and afford the most lovely- situations for a retired residence.
Tributary rivers and creeks, to the number of seventy-five, emptv into the Ohio, between Pittsburgh and its mouth. A number of cities and flourishing towns are situated on its banks.
The Alleghany rises in the northern part of Pennsylvania, flows north into New York, and thence south into Pennsylvania. It is navigable to Olean, in New York, and to Waterford, on* French Creek (its principal tributary), fourteen miles from Lake Erie. Small steam- boats have even ascended to Olean, two hundred and forty miles from its mouth. It receives the waters of French Creek, Connewon- go, Mahoning, and Kiskiminitas. Much of the country along it is bro- ken and sterile, but abounds in inexhaustible quantities of the finest lumber, which supply the great demand of the entire country below. It is supposed that thirty million feet of lumber are annually'shipped from this region. The river is about 400 yards wide at its mouth.
■ The Monongahela rises in the Alleghany range, near Morgantown, Ya.. and flows in a northwest direction to Pittsburgh. The Youghi- ogheny is its principal tributary. The country along it presenfs a
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6 THE OHIO RIVER.
highly picturesque and beautiful appearance. It is rich and fertile; celebrated for its flour, fruit, and whisky, its extensive mines of coal and iron, and large iron manufactories.
The Monongahela has been rendered navigable, in all seasons, to Brownsville, formerly called Red Stone, a distance of about thirty- five miles. Steamboats daily run to this point, connecting with the great stage route from Wheeling to Cumberland. Brownsville con- tains about 1,500 inhabitants. Bridgeport, quite a flourishing town on the opposite side of Dunlap's creek, is connected with it by a bridge.
In good stages of water, the Monongahela is boatable about one hundred miles above Pittsburgh. Fourteen miles above Pittsburgh, on the banks of this river, was the scene of Braddock's defeat by the Indians, on the 9th of July, 1755.
PITTSBURGH, the principal city of Western Pennsylvania, is situated on a point formed by the junction of the Alleghany and Monongahela rivers. It is 201 miles west of Harrisburgh, the capi- tal of the state, 223 miles northwest from Washington Cily, and 297 miles west by north from Philadelphia. Perhaps its site is unrivalled in the world — surrounded by inexhaustible beds of iron, coal. &c, and with a navigation of about fifty thousand miles, which gives it access to the richest and most fertile regions of the globe. Its early history is very interesting. The Governor of Canada (then under dominion of the French) having formed the design of connecting that province with Louisiana, by a line of defenses extending from the Lakes to the Mississippi, had established a post at the mouth of French Creek, and was about to take possession of "the Forks," as the site of Pittsburgh was then called. Gov. Dinwiddie, of Vir- ginia, dispatched George Washington, in October, 1753, to demand of the French commander his designs. On his route, he stopped at "the Forks," and, thinking it a proper place for the erection of a fort, communicated it to the Governor. The following spring, the Vir- ginia Ohio company commenced erecting fortifications on it. While engaged in doing so, on the 17th of April, 1754, Monsieur de Contri- coeur, a French officer, arrived with three hundred canoes, containing one thousand French and Indians, and eighteen cannon, and com- pelled them to surrender. This was the commencement of the French and Indian wars, which existed nine years. The French gave to the fort the name of Fort Duquesne, and occupied it until the 24th of November, 1758, when Gen. Forbes, of Pennsylvania, and Col. George Washington, having marched against them, they set fire to, and evacuated it. Gen. Forbes took possession the next day, and called it Fort Pitt, in honor of the Earl of Chatham. Little improve- ment was made in it until after the Revolution. In 1775, the num- ber of houses did not exceed thirty. In 1786, the first newspaper was printed here. In 1794, an insurrection (commonly known as the Whisky Insurrection) having broken out, the Governor sent a large number of troops to quell it. Many of these were so pleased with the country, that, after the period of their services were over, they returned and settled here; and from this, the city progressed
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THE OHIO RIVER. 7
rapidly. In 1801, James Berthone & Co.. commenced the building of ships, and in three years, five or six ships and schooners were fin- ished and sent to sen.
Pittsburgh is now the great mart for the western part of New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It is connected with Philadelphia and the Atlantic cities by three distinct routes — one by way of Browns- ville— the Cumberland Road and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to Bal- timore, thence to Philadelphia by Railroad; another, by Turnpike over the Alleghany Mountains to Chambersburgh, thence by Railroad through Carlisle and Harrisburgh to Philadelphia; and the third by the Pennsylvania Canal to Johnstown, thence over the Mountains by the Portage Railroad, on ten inclined planes, thence by Canal to Har- risburgh, and by Railroad to Philadelphia. The population of the city proper is about forty thousand. On the opposite side of the Alle- ghany, is Alleghany City, with a population of about twenty thou- sand, connected with Pittsburgh by three bridges, a canal, and aque- duct. On the opposite side of the Monongahela, is Birmingham, also connected with the city by a splendid bridge. This place has a large number of manufactories, and is rapidly increasing. Adjoin- ing it is a new borough called South Pittsburgh. The district within five miles of the center of Pittsburgh, embracing Alleghany City, Manchester, Birmingham, Sligo, Minersvillc, East Liberty, Scotts- field, South Pittsburgh, &c, is estimated to contain a population of one hundred and fifty thousand.
The city suffered very seriously a few years ago, by one of the largest conflagrations that has been known in America. The fire broke out on the 11th of April, 1845, on the corner of Third and Market streets, and extended from thence to the river, up the river to the upper end of Kensington, opposite Birmingham, down from Ken- sington to Fourth-street, down Fourth to Smithfield, up Smithfield to Diamond Alley, down Diamond Alley to the large warehouse on Wood-street, across Wood, diagonally, toward the Bank, up Fourth to the Mayor's office, and across to Third, the place of beginning. This district contains about fifty-six acres — twenty squares, and several parts of squares — and one thousand brick buildings, many of them run- ning from street to street. This was the most wealthy and business portion of the city. Many large stores, foundries, manufactories, dwellings, churches, hotels, and the bridge across the Monongahela were entirely consumed. It is impossible to give any thing like an accurate estimate of the loss sustained. The city has now recovered from it to a great degree, and the burnt district is fast being rebuilt, in a much better style than it ever was.
Pittsburgh is a great manufacturing city, and the very extensive use of stone-coal in her factories, gives to the place a very dusky and dirty appearance. Casting, and iron-mongery of every description, steam engines, cutlery, nails, glass, paper, wire, steamboat building, and many other branches of manufactures are carried on here to a large extent. It has about fifty churches, a theological seminary and university, an exchange, a number of fine schools, a museum, a the- ater, and one of the finest court-houses in the United States. There is also an arsenal, consisting of an inclosed plot of thirty-one acres,
8 THE OHIO RIVER.
containing a magazine of arms, a powder magazine, &c. The West- ern Penitentiary of the state is also located here. There is also an office of the Telegraph here, communicating with the Atlantic, west- ern, and southern cities. The city is supplied with water by exten- sive water-works. During the past year, ending the 1st ultimo, fifty- six steamboats were built, their aggregate tonnage being 4,554. This shows an increase over the new tonnage of the previous year of 1,003. The total tonnage owned in Pittsburg on the 1st of Septem- ber last, amounted to 27,018 88-94, and was divided as follows: Steam tonnage, 21,472 22; all other kinds, 5,546 66. Total, 27,018 88-94. The value of the property in the county is estimated at $19,859,029.
MIDDLETOWN, eight miles below, on the left, is a small village in Alleghany county.
ECONOMY, PA., eight miles below, on the right, is a settlement made by George Rapp, a German, who, with a number of his coun- trymen, of the religious order called Harmonists, first settled in But- ler county, Pa. From thence, they all removed to the Wabash, and built the village of New Harmony. They numbered, then, about eight hundred. New Harmony was purchased in 1814 by Robert Owen, and Rapp and his followers established themselves at Econo- my. In 1832, a number of them seceded and joined Count Leon, who claimed to be a special messenger sent from Heaven to establish a Zion in the west. They setted at Phillipsburgh, opposite Beaver, but the society soon went down. The Harmonists hold their prop- erty in common. They have a number of good mills here, and are noted for their industry and sobriety. The population of Economy settlement is about one thousand four hundred.
Mr. Rapp died in 1847, at a very advanced age. He was highly respected, and ably qualified for the station he occupied as the head of this community.
FREEDOM, is a small village six miles below.
BEAVER, five miles below, in Beaver county, at the mouth of Beaver River, is a very thriving town, possessing great advantages from the water power derived from the Falls of Beaver. A branch of the Ohio Canal extends from Akron, in Summit county, Ohio, to the Beaver division of the Pennsylvania Canal, near Newcastle, in Mercer county — length, eighty-eight miles. The Beaver division of the Pennsylvania Canal runs from Beaver to the head of slack-water navigation on the Shenango — distance, thirty-one miles. Numerous mills and manufacturing establishments are in operation in and around Beaver, and several small villages are scattered along the river, within a short distance of it. Population of the neighborhood estimated at eight thousand. Value of property in the county, four millions four hundred thousand dollars.
GEORGETOWN, on the left, fourteen miles below, in Pennsylva nia, one mile above the Ohio line, is a small village containing about three hundred inhabitants.
10 THE OHIO RIVER.
GLASGOW, on the right, opposite Georgetown, is a new place — recently laid out. It is the terminus of the Sandy and Beaver Canal, intended to connect the Ohio Canal at Bolivar, in Tuscarawas county,. Ohio, with Pittsburgh.
LIVERPOOL, forty-eight miles below Pittsburgh, is a pleasant village in Columbiana county, Ohio, containing about six hundred inhabitants. An extensive business is carried on here in the manu- facture of earthenware.
WELLSVILLE, four miles below, in the same county, is the ter- minus of the contemplated railroad, from Cleveland, on Lake Erie, to the Ohio River — a distance of ninety-seven miles. This town was laid out by Wra, Wells, in 1824, and now contains a population of about twelve hundred. The landing for steamboats is good. This is an important point for the shipment of produce — the surrounding country being fine for agricultural purposes, and the county the best in Ohio for wool-growing.
There is an office of the Telegraph established here. Nearly opposite this place, the well-known desperate battle between Adam Poe, his brother, and a party of Indians, is said to have taken place ; and two miles below, near the mouth of Great Yellow Creek, the locality of the murder of the family of Logan, the Mingo Chief.
STEUBENVILLE, nineteen miles below, is the eounty-seat of Jefferson county, Ohio. Fort Steuben was erected here in 1789, on the spot now occupied by the Female Seminary. It was guarded by a company of troops commanded by Col. Beattie. At the period of Wayne's victory it was deserted.
Steubenville is beautifully situated on an elevated plane, and con- tains a population of about seven thousand, eleven churches, five public, and four select schools, one male academy, and a splendid female seminary, with about one hundred and fifty pupils, employing ten or twelve teachers. The building cost forty thousand dollars. There are about thirty stores, two printing-offices, and one daily paper. In the town and vicinity, there are three large flouring mills, a paper mill — owned by Thompson Hanna — one of the largest and best in the western country, five woollen factories — one of them manufacturing into cloth sixty-thousand pounds of wool annually — two cotton, and two glass manufactories, three air found- ries, a steam saw-mill, two breweries, and several manufactories of copperas in the vicinity — making about one hundred and fifty-nine tons per annum. The town is in a highly prosperous condition. About one thousand persons are employed in its various factories. In the neighboring country, much attention is paid to the rearing of Merino and other superior breeds of sheep.
Through a great portion of this region, there are inexhaustible beds of stone-coal.
Three miles below Steubenville, was the former site of the old Mingo Town, and residence of Logan, the celebrated Indian chief. It is now occupied as farms by Jeremiah H. Hallock, Esq., and Dan- iel Potter.
PENNSYLVANIA.
mtltburg
12 THE OHIO RIVER.
WELLSBURGH, seven miles below, on the left, formerly called Charleston, is the county-seat of Brooke county, Virginia — three hundred and seventy -three miles from Richmond, the capital of the state. It was laid out in 1789, and is beautifully situated on an ele- vated bank of the river. It contains four churches, one white flint glass manufactory, one glass-cutting shop, one paper mill, one cotton factory, five large warehouses, six flouring mills, one woollen factory, one newspaper printing office, one bank, and a population of about two thousand. The manufacturing of earthern and stone ware is carried on here extensively.
About fifty thousand barrels of flour are annually shipped from this place to New Orleans and other ports. It was formerly the resi- dence of Capt. Samuel Brady, the famous Indian hunter.
The land in this county is good, but very uneven.
BETHANY, eight miles east of Wellsburgh, is the residence of Dr. Alexander Campbell, founder of the religious denomination gen- erally known as Carnpbellite Baptists. There is a flourishing college, established here by Dr. Campbell, in 1S41.
WARRENTON, sometimes called Warren, seven miles below, in Jefferson county, Ohio, is a small village and post-town containing about three hundred inhabitants.
MARTINSVILLE, eight miles below, in Belmont county, Ohio, is a flourishing village, containing three churches, three stores, and about four hundred inhabitants.
WHEELING, one mile below, and ninety-seven miles below Pitts- burgh, is the county-seat of Ohio county, Virginia. It is two hun- dred and sixty-four miles from Richmond, and three hundred and fifty-one from Washington city. It lies on both sides of Wheeling Creek, over which there is a beautiful stone bridge. The city stands on a high bank of the river, surrounded by bold hills, in which abund- ance of stone-coal is found. It contains a population of about ten thou- sand, has eleven churches, two academies, two banks, and a savings institution, ninety-seven stores, seven commission houses, four iron foundries, four steam-engine factories, eight glass houses, four woolen and cotton factories, two paper mills, four saw-mills, three white and sheet lead and copperas factories, two daily, one weekly, and one semi- monthly paper, together with many flourishing mills in its vicinity. A Telegraph office is established here. Wheeling contains about twelve hundred houses. Over twenty steamboats are owned here. The Cumberland Road passes through it, and numerous stages leave every day, for the conveyance of passengers to Cumberland. It is also a depot for merchandize coming over the mountains by wagons, for the western and southern trade. The National Road from this place to Cumberland, a distance of one hundred and thirty miles, is one of the greatest thoroughfares in the Union. The mouth of Wheeling creek is celebrated as having been the site of Fort Henry, which was beseiged in September, 1777, by a party of nearly five hundred Indians, led on by the notorious Simon Girty. It was manfully defended by
14 THE OHIO RIVER.
only forty-two men, of whom twenty-three were killed ; and the In- dians, after fighting all day, were compelled to retire with a loss of from sixty to one hundred.
Across the Ohio, at Wheeling, a wire suspension bridge is about being constructed, which, when completed, will be the greatest sus- pension bridge in the world. It will be ninety-seven feet above low water mark, the floor, supported by twelve wire cables,each one thou- sand three hundred and eighty feet long, and capable of supporting a pressure of six hundred and eighteen pounds to the square foot. Its entire cost is estimated at §210.000.
BRIDGEPORT, opposite Wheeling, in Belmont county, Ohio, on the National Road, is a depot of considerable importance, from which goods are forwarded through that part of Ohio by the National Road. It was the scene of a murderous assault by the Indians in 1791, who attacked the cabin of Captain Joseph Kirk wood, in which ware the family of Captain K., and fourteen soldiers. The Indians endeavored to effect an entrance into the cabin, but, being unsuccess- ful, piled brush around it, and set it on fire. Seven of the inmates were wounded — one mortally. Bridgeport contains one church, one grist, and one saw-mill, several stores and commission houses, and about five hundred inhabitants.
ELIZABETHTOWN, thirteen miles below, is the county-seat of Marshall county, Virginia. It is situated on the upper side of Big Grave Creek. On the lower side of the creek is Mounds ville. United, they contain a population of about twelve hundred. There is here one newspaper printing office, two stores, an academy, and a steam flouring mill.
BIG GRATE CREEK, at Elizabelhtown. affords some matter of curiosity to the traveler. A short distance up the creek is the largest Indian mound, perhaps, in the United States. It is between thirty and forty rods in circumference at the base, and about seventy-five feet in height. Its sides are covered with high and aged trees. There is an observatory on the top, erected by Mr. A. B. Tomlinson, in 1837. It is well worthy a visit from those who would wish to view one of those singular remains of a race Ions: since passed away, and of whose history so little can be discovered. The mound may be seen from steamboats passing along the river. Opposite Grave Creek, in Ohio, in 1790, stood a fort called Fort Dillies.
STEINERV1LLE, eight miles below, is a small village in Bel- mont county. Ohio, at the mouth of Captina Creek. Near this place a most bloody contest took place between the Americans and Indians, in May, 1794, known as the battle of Captina.
NEW MARTINSVILLE, three miles below, in Virginia, at the mouth of Fish Creek, is a small village containing about two hun- dred inhabitants.
CLARINGTON, four miles below is a small village in Monroe county, Ohio, at the mouth of Sunfish Creek, containing about three
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16 THE OHIO RIVER.
hundred inhabitants. Woodfield, the county-seat, is eighteen miles in the interior. The county is generally hilly, and the western part abounds in iron ore and coal. A large amount of tobacco is grown here.
SISTERSVILLE, twelve miles below, in Tyler county, Virginia, was originally laid out as the county-seat, in 1814, which was sub- sequently transferred to Middletown, nine miles east. Sistersville contains a population of about two hundred and fifty.
NEWPORT, twelve miles below, in Washington county, Ohio, contains a population of about six hundred inhabitants, and is quite a thriving" town.
o
MARIETTA, nineteen miles below, at the mouth of the Mus- kingum River, is the county-seat of Washington county, Ohio, and a place of considerable importance in the history of the state. Near this spot, on the right bank of the Muskingum, at its junction with the Ohio, the second military post in the state was built, in the autumn of 1785, by a party of troops, under the command of Major John Doughty. They erected here a fort, called Fort Harmar. On the 7th of April, 1788, a party of forty-seven men, under the direc- tion of General Rufus Putnam, landed at this point, having been sent out by the Ohio company to form a permanent settlement on its purchase. This was the first permanent settlement in Ohio, and from this time her history is generally dated. Gen. St. Clair, who had been appointed Governor, not having arrived, temporary laws were formed for the government of the settlers, and published by nailing to a tree. Return Jonathan Meigs was appointed to execute them. Many of these settlers were men of high character; some of them had served in the severe toils of the Revolution. Gen. Washington said of them, "There never were men better calculated to promote the welfare of such a community." On the 2d of July, a meeting was called on the bank of the Muskingum, and the name of Marietta given to the place, in honor of Maria Antoinette, Arch-Duchess of Austria — the beautiful and unfortunate Queen of Louis XVI. On the 2d of Sep- tember, the first court was organized with great solemnity, at Cam- pus Martius Hall (as the stockade was calted), Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper, judges. A procession was formed at the point in the following order: 1. The High Sheriff, with his drawn sword; 2. Citizens; 3. The Officers of the Garrison; 4. Members of the Bar; 5. The Supreme Judges; 6. The Governor and Clergy; 7. Judges of the Court of Common Pleas. A large body of Indians acted as spectators. The procession counter-marched at the Hall, and the Judges took their seats ; a prayer was then offered, and the court duly opened. This settlement experienced great privations and trials during its early history, but improved rapidly.
Marietta is built on a level plot of ground, and the greater part of it is liable to be overflowed by the rises of the Ohio." This has, in a great measure, injured its growth. The inhabitants are noted for their morality and intelligence. The town contains seven churches, a male and female academy, a college^ two public libraries, one bank,
THE OHIO RIVER. 17
two printing-offices, several manufacturing establishments, about twenty stores, and two thousand five hundred inhabitants. Ship- building was carried on here extensively between the years 1800 and 1807. Marietta was then a "port of clearance," and several ves- sels sailed from it to foreign countries. Within the last few years, the business has been commenced anew.
T! ere are still to be seen here, numerous remains of ancient forti- ficati us and burial places.
HARMAR, on the south bank of the Muskingum, opposite Marietta, and the original site of Fort Harmar, is a flourishing town of about one thousand inhabitants. The building of steamboats is carried on here to a considerable extent, and there are also several mills and manu- factories of different kinds. It is well situated for a manufacturing town, as abundance of water can be obtained from the dam on the Muskingum.
THE MUSKINGUM RIVER rises near the sources of the Cuy- ahoga, of Lake Erie, in the southern part of the Connecticut Reserve, flows in a southeasterly direction, and enters the Ohio at Marietta. It has been made navigable, by means of locks and dams and short canals, to Dresden, about ninety-six miles from Marietta by water. The numerous falls of the Muskingum afford water power to almost any extent, and most excellent advantages for manufacturing.
ZANESVILLE, on the east bank of the Muskingum, eighty miles by water from Marietta, is the county-seat of Muskingum county, and one of the principal towns in Ohio. It is connected with Put- nam, on the opposite side of the river, by a handsome bridge. These two towns, as well as West Zanesville, and South Zanesville, may be considered as one place, having a population of about ten thou- sand. This place affords superior^advantages for manufactories of all kinds. The fine water power and abundance of bituminous coal in its vicinity, and its great facilities for transportation and exporta- tion—the National Road passing through it, with its immense travel; the Muskingum, opening immediate intercourse with the Ohio and all the southern countries; the Ohio Canal, reaching to the Lakes on the north, and south through the finest portions of the state— all seem to mark it out as one of the finest positions in the west for manufacturing purposes.
There are already about thirty manufactories, of different kinds, established here. The town is well supplied with all the facilities for a large city, and ranks high for its intelligence and morality. Much attention is paid to education, and there are numerous schools for males and females in it.
In its neighborhood, salt water of a good quality is found by boring. The manufacture of this article was formerly carried on here largely, but has latterly declined, on account of the great quantities manu- factured at Kanawha, Va.
VIENNA, six miles below Marietta, is a small village in Virginia, nearly opposite an island of the same name.
18 THE OHIO RIVER.
PARKERSBURGH, seven miles below, is the county-seat of Wood county, Virginia. It is situated at the mouth of the Little Kanawha River. Jt is a place of considerable business and enterprise, contains lour churches, one printing-office, one bank, nine stores, two steam saw, and two steam flouring mills, two tanneries, and one carding factory. Population about three thousand. It is connected with Winchester, Virginia, by a turnpike — distance about two hundred and sixty miles. Great efforts are being made to extend the Balti- more and Ohio Railroad to this point.
BELPRE, opposite Parkersburgh, is a beautiful settlement, extend- ing some ten or twelve miles along the river.
BLANNERHASSETT'S ISLAND, two miles below, is a beauti- ful island, celebrated as having been the residence of Herman Blan- nerhasset, an Irish emigrant of distinction, who, about the year 1798, commenced improving it, and built a splendid mansion, the ruins of which are still to be seen. He expended a large sum of money in- decorating his mansion and laying out pleasure grounds with great taste and elegance. His lady was a highly accomplished woman, and his house was the resort of the most literary and refined society. When Aaron Burr was projecting .his famous expedition, he called on Blannerhasset, induced him to join in the conspiracy, and embark all his wealth in the scheme. They were detected, arrested, and tried for treason. Although not convicted, Blannerhasset was ruined. His splendid mansion was deserted and went to decay, his pleasure- grounds overrun with brush and weeds, and the Island now presents nothing but a mass of ruins. Wirt has rendered this spot almost classic ground, by his thrilling eloquence at the trial of Burr and Blannerhasset. After years of wandering, Blannerhasset died, in 1822, on the Island of Guernsey. His wife subsequently returned to the United States, and endeavored to obtain some indemnification from Government for their losses, but without effect. She died in New York in 1842.
TROY, or Hockingsport, twelve miles below, in Athens county, Ohio, is a small village at the mouth of the Hockhocking River, con- taining three stores, and about two hundred inhabitants.
THE HOCKHOCKING RIVER rises in Fairfield county, Ohio, winds through a hilly country about eighty miles, and enters the Ohio River at Troy. The name of the river is that given to it by the Delaware Indians, a signifies a bottle.
This river is navigable for small crafts to Athens, the county-seat. Seven miles northwest of Lancaster, it falls over a stratum of rocks, about forty feet perpendicular. Above the falls, it resembles a bottle, in shape, which probably gave rise to the name. The whole coun- try along it is full of wild and picturesque scenery. Numerous an- cient mounds and fortifications are found north of Athens, some of them built of stone — differing entirely from any found in the vicinity. Some of them are of an extraordinary size; in one was found a thousand perch of stone, out of which a dam was constructed across
Big Uockhocking R
20 THE OHIO RIVER.
the river. The lower part of this valley abounds in yellow pine. In 1840, 92,800 bushels of salt were manufactured in this county.
At Athens, there is a flourishing University endowed with two towships of land.
BELLVILLE, four miles below Troy, in Wood county, Va., at the mouth of Lee's Creek, was settled in 1785, by a party of emi- grant from Pittsburgh, under the direction of Joseph Wood, Esq. In 1786, extensive blockhouses, surrounded by pickets, were erected, to prevent the incursions of the Indians, from whom the settlers suf- fered severely. It was the scene of many tragical events, which are detailed in the Hesperian, of 1838, by Dr. Hildreth, of Marietta. It is now a small village, built on a high, dry bottom, very fertile and beautiful.
MURRAYS VILLE, five miles below, in Virginia. The business of steamboat building has recently been commenced here to a limited extent.
SHADE RIVER, one mile below, on the Ohio side, is a small stream which empties in the Ohio here. Its mouth was formerly called the "Devil's Hole." This marked the point at which the Scioto Indians usually crossed the Ohio, after their predatory incur- sions in Virginia.
RAVENSWOOD, eleven miles below, in Jackson county, Va., was laid out about ten years ago, and is now a pretty brisk village, of about three hundred and fifty inhabitants, two churches, two school- houses, three stores, one large saw and grist mill. A large number of flat-boats are built here, for transporting produce to the different points below. The country is hilly, but generally very productive. It is very finely calculated for a grazing country, and many sheep and cattle are raised here. Ripley, the county-seat, is twelve miles in the interior.
LETARTSVILLE, twenty-three miles below, is a small town in Meiws county, Ohio. It is situated just at the falls, and at the foot of the Island bearing that name.
C4RAHAM'S STATION, six miles below, in Meigs county— a small place, containing fifteen or twenty houses, and about one hun- dred and twenty inhabitants.
POMEROY, eight miles below, the county-seat of Meigs county, O., is a flourishing town, and the principal point of business for the coal re- gion. It was first settled in 1816, and the coal-mines opened in 1832. In 1S41, Pomeroy was made the county-seat. It is situ- ated on a narrow strip of land, running some distance along the river. Immediately back of it is a rough, precipitous hill, and the country in the interior is wild and romantic. It abounds with stone-coal of a good quality, and an extensive business is carried on in that article. The most of the coal-land for four miles along the river is owned by the family of the late Samuel W. Pomeroy. The
THE OHIO RIVER. 21
company employ about three hundred hands, and a large number of flat-boats for (he transportation of their coal, of which they dug during tire last year about two millions of bushels. The business is also carried on by several others in the vicinity, to an extent, combined, of about 100,000 bushels annually. Pomeroy contains a good court-house, six churches, one printing-office, fifteen stores, two foundries, one flour, and two saw-mills, two carding-machines, three machine-shops, one rolling-mill, one rope-walk, and two large tan- neries. Ten steam-engines are employed here. Population, about two thousand.
COALPORT, one mile below, is the principal mining point of the Pomeroy company. Railways are here built for the purpose of run- ning down the coal from the mines to boats in the river. The mining is mostly done by natives of Wales, who have been accustomed to the business from youth.
MIDDLEPORT, just below Coalport, has been laid out but a few years, but is rapidly increasing-. These towns owe their increase to the coal trade, which is becoming here more extensive every year.
SHEFFIELD adjoins Middleport, and is flourishing rapidly.
POINT PLEASANT, twelve miles below, at the mouth of the Great Kanawha River, is the county-seat of Mason county, Virginia. It is the site of the bloodiest battle ever fought with the Indians in Virginia— the "Battle of Point Pleasant''— on the 10th of October, 1774, when about eleven hundred Americans, under the command of Col. Lewis, were attacked by a large body of Indian warriors, comprising the flower of the Shawanee, Delaware, Mingo, Wyan- dotte and Cayuga tribes, led on by that famous warrior, Cornstalk. The battle continued all day, when, about sundown, the Indians find- ing themselves about to be completely surrounded by different detach- ments of the army, retreated across the Ohio, to their towns on the Scioto. The Virginia army sustained a loss of seventy-five killed, and one hundred and forty wounded. From the facility with which the Indians carry off their dead, it was impossible to ascertain their loss. The bodies of thirty-seven were, however, found the next morning. A fort was erected at the mouth of the Kanawha after the battle.
Cornstalk was murdered at Point Pleasant in the summer of 1777. A reward was offered by the Governor for the apprehension of the murderers, but without effect.
Point Pleasant contains two churches, three stores, a court-house, one steam flour and one steam saw-mill, two tanneries, and about four hundred inhabitants.
THE GREAT KANAWHA RIVER, is the principal river of Western Virginia. It rises in the Alleghany mountains, and, after winding through a highly picturesque and mountainous region, enters the Ohio at Point Pleasant. It has been made navigable for small
22 THE OHIO RIVER.
steamboats, by deepening the channel, to the Kanawha Salines — a distance of sixty miles from its mouth — where are found the most extensive salines in the western country. The water is found by boring from one to two thousand feet, when it gushes up, frequently to the height of twenty feet above the ground, in many places ac- companied by a gas which burns with a clear, brilliant flame, and is a great assistance in manufacturing the salt. The water is very strongly impregnated with salt, and is evaporated principally by a steam process. The quantity manufactured annually is about three millions of bushels, supplying most of the demand in the west.
The scenery along the Kanawha is unsurpassed by any in the west. From the mouth of the river to Charleston, the county-seat of Kanawha county — a distance of fifty-five miles— it is pleasingly va- riegated by fertile fields and rough mountain landscapes. Above the salines, the river is broken by falls, and the country becomes more mountainous. .In the neighborhood of the falls are many places of great interest. Among others, the "Hawk's Nest," or, as it has some- times been called, "Marshall's Pillar,-' a bold, projecting mountain peak, that rises to the distance of one thousand feet above the river. It is much frequented by visitors, and well worthy of a visit by all.
GALLIPOLIS, four miles below Point Pleasant, is the county-seat of Gallia county, Ohio. It is pleasantly situated on a high bank — ten feet above the flood of 1832. It was originally settled in 1791, by a party of French emigrants, many of whose descendants yet re- side here. For some few years back, it has been improving consid- erably, and is a forwarding point for a great deal of produce. It contains three churches, two newspaper printing-offices, about four- teen stores, and a population of near eighteen hundred.
MILLERSPORT, twenty-five miles below Gallipolis, is a small village in Lawrence county, Ohio, containing four stores, fifteen or twenty houses, and about one hundred and twenty inhabitants.
GUYANDOTTE, thirteen miles below Millersport, in Cabell county, Virginia, is the most important point of steamboat embarka- tion in Western Virginia, except Wheeling. The great stage route along the Kanawha to Winchester commences here. It is a flourish- ing place, containing about eight hundred inhabitants. Numerous remains of a former race of inhabitants — bones, arrows, stone axes, etc. — are found all around it.
PROCTORSVILLE, a small village in Ohio, nearly opposite Guy- andotte.
BURLINGTON, eight miles below, is a small village, and the county-seat of Lawrence county, Ohio. It contains a court-house, four stores, two churches, and about four hundred inhabitants. Law- rence county is in the midst of the iron region of Ohio. The three neighboring counties — Scioto, Jackson, and Greenup — in Kentucky, make annually about thirty-eight thousand tons of pig iron, which
Belleville 1.
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24 THE OHIO RIVER.
commands a good price. There are twenty-one furnaces in this re- gion, employing about two thousand persons.
BIG SANDY RIVER, four miles below, on the left, forms the boundary between Virginia and Kentucky, for nearly two hundred miles. It rises in the Alleghany mountains, near the heads of Cum- berland and Clinch, and is navigable for light crafts to the mountains. Just below its mouth stands the small village of Catlettsburgh.
HANGING ROCK, thirteen miles below, in Lawrence county, Ohio, derives its name from a cliff of rocks about four hundred feet high, which projects over the rear of the town. It is the principal shipping point for the iron manufactured in that region. It has one church, four stores, one forge, a rolling mill, a foundry, and a popu- lation of about two hundred. They are about connecting the difler- ent mines with this point by means of railroads.
GREENUPSBURGH, six miles below, on the left, is the county- seat of Greenup county, Kentucky. It is situated at the mouth of Little Sandy River, and contains a court-house, one church, fourteen stores and groceries, and a population of about three hundred.
WHEELERSBURGH, eight miles below, in Scioto county, Ohio, is a flourishing town, with a population of three hundred.
SPRINGVILLE, in Greenup county, Kentucky, opposite Ports- mouth, contains a foundry, several manufactories, and a population of one hundred and thirty. This county abounds in fine beds of iron ore, of an excellent quality. There are ten blast furnaces in operation in it.
PORTSMOUTH, twelve miles below Wheelersburgh, the county- seat of Scioto county, is situated on a high bank, on the upper side of the mouth of the Scioto River, and at the terminus of the Ohio Canal. It is ninety miles south of Columbus, the capital of the state. The canal here enters the river, uniting the waters of Lake Erie, after a passage of three hundred and seven miles, with the Ohio, thus affording a grand communication, by means of the lake and the New York Canal, with all the northern states. The country along the canal is one of the most fertile in the west. In passing along it, one cannot but be struck with the extensive corn-fields and finely cultivated farms extending for miles into the interior of the valley. With this great agricultural region, and the immense chain of com- munication with different parts of the country, Portsmouth must be a point of considerable importance. A vast deal of business is trans- acted there now, and the town is in a flourishing condition. It con- tains four churches, a fine court-house, seventeen stores, one rolling, one flour, and one oil mill, one carding machine, one forge, and two foundries. A large basin, with dry-docks, is being built on the op- posite side of the Scioto, for the building and repairing of steamboats. The population of Portsmouth is about three thousand five hun- dred.
j mace KENTUCKY
26 THE OHIO RIVER.
THE SCIOTO RIVER, which here enters the Ohio River, rises in the northern part of the state, and runs in a southeast direction nearly two hundred miles to its mouth. It is navigable for fiatboats, in high stages, one hundred and thirty miles. In the spring of 1848, a steamboat arrived within six miles of Chillicothe (which is forty- five miles above Portsmouth), and means are now being put into operation to make the steamboat navigation to Chillicothe permanent.
CHILLICOTHE, on the west bank of the Scioto, is a place of considerable importance in the state. It was first laid out in 1796. In 1S00, the seat of Government was removed from Cincinnati to it, where it remained until 1816, when Columbus was made the per- manent capital. Chillicothe is the principal point of trade for the great Scioto valley. It contains a court-house, thirteen churches, two academies, forty-nine stores, eight forwarding houses, five weekly newspapers, four flouring mills, manufacturing ten thousand barrels of flour annually, four pork houses, packing about forty-five thousand barrels of pork annually, and a population of six thousand five hun- dred. The Ohio Canal passes through it. There are many remains of ancient mounds and fortifications in its vicinity.
COLUMBUS, the capital of the state, stands on the east bank of the Scioto, ninety miles above Portsmouth by land. There is a branch of the Ohio Canal extending to it; the National Road, also, passes through it, and a turnpike leading to the lakes. The railroad from Cincinnati to Sandusky, on the lake, is within thirty miles of it, and it is in contemplation to build a branch to Columbus. The present site of the city was, in 1812, an unbroken forest. It now contains a population of about eleven thousand. It is laid out regu- larly, with wide streets, and adorned with many beautiful buildings. The public buildings are constructed on a magnificent scale, and do honor to the state. They are a lunatic asylum, an asylum for the blind, one for the deaf and dumb, and the Ohio penitentiary. Co- lumbus has seventeen churches, a fine court-house, a very shabby old state-house, two flourishing academies, a Lutheran theological seminary, six weekly and two tri-weekly newspapers, one monthly and one semi-monthly periodical, and, during the sessions of the legislature, two daily newspapers.
ROCKVILLE, seventeen miles below Portsmouth, in Scioto county, Ohio, has a few houses, one store, and a large mill.
VANCEBURGH, two miles below, in Lewis county, Kentucky, is a small village, containing three stores, several mechanical shops, and a population of one hundred and fifty. There is a good bed of cop- peras near thisplace, a fine lime-stone quarry, and clay suitable for making fire-brick and stone-ware. A few miles in the interior are the Esculapian Springs, which have recently become a celebrated wa- tering-place.
ROME, seven miles below, in Ohio, is a small place, containing five or six houses.
Portsmouth gcioto B.
28 THE OHIO RIVER.
CONCORD, seven miles below, is a small village in Lewis county, Kentucky, containing one church, four stores, and a population of one hundred and twenty-five.
MANCHESTER, seven miles below, is a small village in Adams county, Ohio; population about two hundred and fifty. The first settlement within the Virginia military district was made at this point, in 1 795, by Gen. Nathaniel Massie. It was formerly the county- seat of Adams county ; but in 1S03, West Union, eight miles in the interior, became it. There are said to be fine beds of iron in the eastern part of this county. The land is generally broken and hilly.
MAYSYILLE, twelve miles below, is in Mason county, Kentucky It v/as for many years known as "Limestone," from the creek of that name which there enters the Ohio. It was settled in 1784, under the auspices of Simon Kenton, who had land there several years be- fore. Col. Daniel Boone resided here in 1786. Maysville stands on a high bank, and presents quite a beautiful appearance from the river. It is surrounded by high hilis, which come to the edge of the city. From its exposed condition, its growth, was for a long time retarded. Its great improvement may be dated from 1815. It is the great depot for goods intended for the northeastern part of the state. The great road leading from Chillicothe, in Ohio, to Lexington, the capital of Kentucky, passes through here. Maysville was incorpo- rated in 1833. It is a well-built city, containing a number of fine edifices. There is a beautiful city-hall, six churches, two seminaries, two public schools, seven private schools, a hospital, a bank, two printing-offices, each publishing tri-weekly and weekly papers, two steam cotton factories, one bagging factory, a wool-carding factory, two foundries, five rope walks, two steam saw mills, a large flouring mill, and divers other factories; forty-four groceries, twenty-five dry goods stores, twelve stores for the sale of various other articles, three pork-houses (at which, in 1847-8, eleven thousand hogs were packed), four lumber yards, &c. Population five thousand. It has recently been made the seat of Justice for the countv.
LEXINGTON, Kentucky, sixty-four miles southwest from Mays- ville, in the interior of the state, is the county-seat of Fayette county, and a place of considerable note. It was founded in 1776, and a blockhouse erected in 1779 to prevent the incursions of the Indians. It was for several years the capital of the state. It is a beautifully situated town, and adorned with many fine buildings. Transylvania University, of which Rev. Henry B. Bascom, D. D., is President, is situated here. There is a literary, medical, and law department con- nected with it, all in a flourishing condition. The university is well furnished with fine libraries and museums, for instruction in the dif- ferent departments. There is also a splendid lunatic asylum, which, in architectural adornments, and all its operations, reflects great credit on the state. In the city and county, the manufacturing of hemp is carried on very extensively, making, annually, upwards of 4,000,000 yards of bagging, and about 3,500,000 pounds of rope. Population about nine thousand.
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30 THE OHIO RIVER.
ASHLAND, the residence of Henry Clay, is a mile and a half southeast of Lexington.
ABERDEEN, on the opposite side of the river from Maysville, in Brown county, Ohio, is a pretty thriving village, containing a popu- lation of six hundred. It is noted as being the "Gretna Green" of Ohio, where a worthy gentleman stands ever ready to tie the knot hy- menial without asking questions, for all who may apply for his services.
CHARLESTON, seven miles below, in Kentucky, is a small vil- lage containing a few houses.
RIPLEY, two miles below, in Brown county, Ohio, is one of the most flourishing villages on the Ohio River. It was laid out in 1812, and first called Staunton. It contains six churches, twenty stores, one newspaper printing-office, three flouring mills, one foundry, one warding machine, and two thousand inhabitants.
LAV ANA, two and. a-half miles below, is a small village in tne same county.
DOVER, opposite Lavana, in Mason county, Kentucky, is a thriv- ing village, in the center of the tobacco region. It contains two churches, six stores, three tobacco warehouses, one grist, and one saw mill, and a population of five hundred. It is a place 6*f considerable
business.
H1GGINSPORT, four miles below, in Brown county. Ohio, is a flourishing village that has sprung up within a few years. It has several churches and stores, one grist, and one saw mill, and a pop ulation of about five hundred.
AUGUSTA, four miles below, in Bracken county, Kentucky, is a beautifully situated and pleasant town. There is a college here, un- der the control of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which bears a high reputation. It has usually about one hundred and fifty students. Augusta contairWa fine college edifice, three churches, a large steam saw and grist mill, ten stores and groceries, and three tobacco ware- houses. Population twelve hundred. The bottom on which the town stands, has evidently been a large burial ground of an ancient race. Scarcely a post-hole can be dug without turning up human bones. Gold has been found in the county; and it is believed, by those who have examined, that it might be found in great quantities.
Brookville, the seat of justice of the county, is nine miles in the interior.
ROCKSPRING, is a landing point, three and a-half miles below.
CHILO, or MECHANICSBURGH, opposite Rockspring, is a small village in Ohio.
NEVILLE, three miles below, is a small village of considerable enterprise, in Clermont county, Ohio, containing a population of three
THE OHIO RIVER. 31
hundred and fifty, Batavia is the county-seat, sixteen miles in the interior.
MOSCOW, two miles below Neville, is a village of about the same size.
POINT PLEASANT, three miles below, a village in the same county, population two hundred. There are two large pork-packing establishment here.
BELMONT, opposite, in Kentucky, is a small place.
NEW RICHMOND, five miles below, in Clermont county. Ohio, is a town of considerable importance, doing a business which is, per- haps, not equalled by any other town of its size in the West. It con- tains three churches, five stores, and a very large distillery, and a population of about one thousand. A few miles in the interior, is a flourishing Seminary, under the charge of the Rev. Mr. Parker.
PALESTINE, four miles below, in the same county, is a small village of considerable business. A large number of lots have been laid out, and sold here during the present year (1848), and Mr. Jos. Budd has established one of the largest brick yards in the West. The brick are made by machinery and shipped to Cincinnati by flat boats. The population, is about three hundred.
THE LITTLE MIAMI RIVER enters the Ohio, about fifteen miles below New Richmond, and six miles above Cincinnati. This is one of the principal rivers in Ohio. It flows through a very fer- tile country, adorned with fine farms. There are upwards of fifty mill-seats on its banks. In the neighborhood of Yellow Springs, about seventy miles from its mouth, is a place called "Clifton," which affords some" of the most beautiful scenery in the west. Here the river, in the distance of a few miles, falls two hundred feet. These falls have cut a narrow channel to a great depth, through solid rocks of limestone. The banks here are covered with hemlock, cedar, and other evergreens. In some places, the stream is so narrow that a person can leap from bank to bank. The depth of the water in some places in this channel has never been sounded. The high, pictur- esque and perpendicular walls on each side of the foaming stream, the wild and grotesque appearance of the rocks, and the noise of the falling waters, contrasted with the mild and beautiful aspect of the surrounding country, form a landscape of exceeding beauty. Near this are the Yellow Springs, a celebrated watering place, which affords a cool and delightful retreat from the heat of the summer.
COLUMBIA, one and a-half miles below, was originally designed for the great emporium of the west. It was laid out by Maj. Benja- min Stiles, in 1780, and the plat extends for more than a mile along the Ohio, reaching back about three-fourths of a mile. The site not
32 THE OHIO RIVER.
being found sufficiently high above the floods of the river, the project of a city was abandoned. The whole bottom adjoining is frequently inundated. The first church in Ohio was built here.
JAMESTOWN, Kentucky, nearly opposite, is a small village which has only been laid out a year or two. The lots sold off rapidly, and a number of buildings were erected during the last year. It was completely inundated by the flood of 1847. There is a steam ferry plying between this place and Fulton every few minutes in the day.
FULTON, one mile below, in Hamilton county, Ohio, and adjoin- ing Cincinnati, is a very flourishing town, principally devoted to the building of steamboats and ships. Within the last few years, sev- eral ships, some of large tonnage, have been built here, and found, to be equally serviceable, and at a lower expense than those built in the Atlantic cities. During the year 1S47, thirty-four steamboats, four steam-ships, two barges, one brig, and one ship were built here. The town extends along the bank of the Ohio a distance of about two and a half miles, to the corporation of Cincinnati. It has a pop- ulation of about two thousand — four churches, two public school- houses, five ship-yards, nine steam saw mills, one dry-dock, one foundry, one planing machine, a large number of mechanical shops, and a number of stores and groceries. The Little Miami Railroad passes through a great portion of it by its principal street.
CINCINNATI, the ccunty-seat of Hamilton county, and the larg- est city in the west, stands on the bank of the Ohio, directly opposite the mouth of Licking River. It is four hundred and sixty-five miles, by the river, from Pittsburgh, one hundred and thiTtyTtwo above Louisville, six hundred and fifty from New York, via. Lake Erie, six hundred and seventeen from Philadelphia, five hundred and twenty from Baltimore, four hundred and ninety-seven from Wash- ington City, four hundred and ninety-four above the mouth of the Ohio, and fourteen hundred and forty-seven from New Orleans. It is situated in a beautiful valley of about twelve miles in circumfer- ence, surrounded by hills. This valley is divided nearly in the center by the Ohio. The first settlement was made here on the 24th of December, 1788, by a party of men sent out under Matthias Den- man and Robert Patterson, to improve a portion of the purchase mad® by Hon. John Cleves Symmes. This purchase embraced a tract of 311,682 acres in the southwest quarter of the state, lying between the Great and Little Miami Rivers. It extends along the Ohio River a distance of twenty-seven miles. One square mile in each township was reserved for the use of schools, and Section 29 in each township for the support of religious societies.
The party we before spoke of, landed opposite the mouth of the Licking, about what is now the junction of Front and Water streets, and laid out a town called Losantiville. This name was, however, abandoned in a short time, and the name of Cincinnati given to it. In February. 1789, a party under the immediate direction of Judge Symmes landed at what is now called North Bend, fifteen miles below
Migginsport
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34 THE OHIO RIVER.
Cincinnati, and Ihere laid out what was intended to be a large city? called Symmes. In March, a detachment of soldiers arrived at the Bend, to protect the settlers. There now existed considerable rivalry- bet ween the three places — Columbia, Cincinnati, and North Bend, as to which would eventually become the chief seat of business. This rivalry was terminated in favor of Cincinnati, by the arrival of Major Doughty, from Fort Harmar, who built Fort Washington^ to which the troops from the Bend were subsequently removed. The Fort stood on what is now Arch-street, between Third and Fourth, and oast of Broadway. In January, 1790, Gen. Arthur St. Clair organ- ized Hamilton county. In the same year, Gen. Harmar marched from Fort Washington against the Indians. In the next }^ear, Gen. St. Clair started from the same place on his ill-fated expedition. On his return, Major Ziegler was appointed to the command of the Forf. and, in a short time after, was succeeded by Col. Wilkinson, who was, in 1794, succeeded by Capt. William Henry Harrison (afterwards President, of the United States), who retained it until 1798.
In 1792, the first church was erected, on Avhat is now the corner of Main and Fourth streets, and occupied by the First Presbyterian Church. In the rear of it are the graves of many of the pioneers. Rev. James Kemper was the first pastor of it, and Dr. Joshua L. Wilson the second, who filled that station upwards of forty years. until his death, which took place in 1847. In 1793, Wm. Maxwell established the first paper north of the Ohio River, at Cincinnati, called the "Sentinel of the Northwestern Territory." On the 11th of January, 1794, two keel-boats, with bullet-proof covers and port- holes, and provided with cannon and small arms, sailed from Cincin- nati to Pittsburgh, each making a trip once in four weeks. During this period the town progressed but slowly. Idleness, drinking, and gambling prevailed to a great extent in "the army, and was partici- pated in by many of the citizens.
The population in 1795, was about 500; in 1800, 750; in 1810, 2,540. From 1800 to 1812, it progressed pretty rapidly, and consid- erable trade was carried on with New Orleans, in keel-boats, which returned laden with foreign goods. The passage to New Orleans occupied then about twenty-five days, and the return sixty-five.
In 1819, it was incorporated as a city, and in 1820. contained a population of 10,000; in 1830, 24,831 ; in 1840, 46,338; 1847, 90,000; and in 1848, it is estimated at 100,000.
The city occupies the whole of the first bank of the river, called the bottom, and the second, called the hill, which is about one hun- dred and eight feet above low-water mark, and sixty feet above the first bank. The streets are so graded as to render the communica- tion between the two parts easy. The city is laid out with great regularity, and many of the streets adorned with fine edifices, and beautiful shade-trees. It extends back to a third range of hills, a distance, on Main-street, of nearly two miles, and in the western part, perhaps more, and along the Ohio about three miles. It contains about fourteen thousand houses, seventy-four churches, many of them very fine edifices, three literary colleges, four medical colleges, one law college, one female college and several female seminaries.
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four classical schools, twelve large, finely-built public school-houses, with about five thousand pupils, six banks, with a capita! of about six millions of dollars, eight large public halls, a court-house and jail, with three courts, sitting nearly the whole year, a mayors-office, &c, a mercantile exchange, a mercantile library and institute with 1,120 members and 6,100 volumes, a mechanic's institute and library containing 4,000 volumes, an apprentice's library containing 2.300 volumes, two Masonic halls, six Odd Fellows' halls, six Sons of Temperance halls, two Temple of Honor halls, sixteen insurance offices, an observatory, the corner-stone of which was laid by John Quincy Adams, a post-office, three theatres, water-works, gas-works, one museum, one commercial hospital and lunatic asylum, four or- phan's asylums, <fcc. There are, also, a large number of foundries, on an extensive scale, cotton and woolen factories, mills of different kinds, and manufactories of almost every description. Pork-packing is carried on more extensively here than in any place in the world, per- haps. The number killed at the city establishments in 1847 was 412.161. Killed in the country and brought to the city to be packed, 74,886. Total packed here, 487,047.
In 1S47, there were in operation in the city, and within five min- utes walk of its corporate limits, two hundred and two steam-engines, driving the machinery of foundries, machine-shops, planing-mills. Hour-mills, saw-mills, rolling-mills, furniture-factories, &c.
Merchandizing is also carried on to a very great extent, and of later years, wholesale houses have increased very rapidly, furnishing orders for a large number of the towns in the interior of Ohio, Ken- tucky. Indiana and Illinois. The capital invested in commerce is estimated at $20,000,000.
There are thirteen daily, and twenty-five weekly newspapers, and four monthly periodicals in operation here.
Seven turnpikes, reaching to different parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, center here. One railroad, reaching from the lakes, at Sandusky, two canals, one extending to the interior of Indiana, the other to Toledo, on the lakes, with a branch to Lafayette, Indiana. There is, also, a branch of the Telegraph here.
On the hills back of the city are two very beautiful villages, Mt. Auburn and Walnut Hills, mostly occupied as country-seats, by per- sons doing business in the city. Walnut Hills is the seat of "Lane Seminary," a theological institution under the care of the New School Presbyterians. Rev. Lyman Beecher, D. D., is the President. Four miles northwest of the city are two fine cemeteries — "Spring Grove," containing about one hundred acres, and the "Wesley an Cemetery," containing about forty acres. Both are being rapidly improved, with great taste.
The lower part of the city has been overflown at two separate periods, occasioning great loss of property; one in February, 1832, and the other in December, 1847. The water came up to within a lew feet of Lower Market-street, and was some four feet deep on Front-street.
In the county, the cultivation of the grape is carried on quite ex- tensively, for which the soil is well suited.
36 THE OHIO RIVER.
To the north of Cincinnati are several fine towns, carrying on an extensive business. Hamilion, twenty-one miles, is a place of great enterprise, and having fine facilities of water for manufacturing pur- poses. Dayton, fifty miles north, is a beautiful city, with a popula- tion of about eleven thousand. It is a place of great wealth and re- finement. There are a great many very extensive manufactories in it, which are driven principally by water from the Miami Canal, and a Feeder.
NEWPORT, opposite Cincinnati, on the upper side of the Licking River, in Campbell county, Kentucky, is the principal town of the county. For many years it has progressed but slowly, but within the last few years, a company purchased a large tract of land laying- just back of the older portion of the town, and adjoining the Lick- ing, and have laid it out in town lots. These were sold off rapidly, and many buildings commenced and erected. It now bids fair to become quite an extensive place. At present, it contains a population of about four thousand. A garrison of the United States' Army has been established here for many years. Newport contains five churches, one seminary, five private schools, twenty-nine groceries and stores, one rolling-mill, one cotton factory, one rope walk, and one silk factory.
The greater part of the town extending up the Licking, and along the bank of the Ohio, was completely overflown by the floods of 1832 and 1847. This will tend much to decrease the value of prop- erty here.
A steam ferry plies from Cincinnati every few minutes in the day. A Dridge is also about being built across the Licking to connect New- port with Covington.
Alexandria is the county-seat, thirteen miles in the interior.
COVINGTON, on the lower side of the mouth of the Licking, in Kenton county, Kentucky, is built on a beautiful plain, most of which is above high water mark. The streets are laid out so as to appear from the hills back of Cincinnati as a continuation of that city. Covington is in a highly flourishing condition, and bids fair to be- come a very large city. A steam ferry makes intercourse between it and Cincinnati easy. The population is now abouteleventhousand, and rapidly increasing. It contains a fine city hall, eight churches, two printing-offices, a very richly-endowed theological college be- longing to the Baptists, seventy dry-goods and grocery stores, thirty- five tobacco factories, one rolling-mill, one steam grist-mill, three rope walks, one cotton factory, one silk factory, and many other manu- factories of different kinds. About a mile back of the city is a beau- tiful cemetery called Linden Grove. Four miles in the interior are the Latonian Springs, a very fashionable and pleasant resort in the summer season.
The county-seat is Independence, ten miles in the interior.
This county, as well as Campbell, is principally hilly, but very productive.
NORTH BEND, sixteen miles below Cincinnati, in Hamilton
THE OHIO RIVER. 37
county, Ohfo, near the mouth of the Great Miami, was the place originally laid out by Judge Symmes for the great city of the west. All traces of a town have disappeared, and it is now noted as the former residence and grave of the lamented President Harrison. The house which he formerly occupied is a plain country farm-house, in full view of the river. His widow, and several members of his family now reside here. On a beautiful knoll, just below, his remains are interred. A plain brick vault is erected over them, and is visible for several miles up and down the river. Standing by its side, the eye of the observer takes in a beautiful view of parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. About thirty rods west of it, is the grave of the Hon. John Cleves Symmes.
The Whitewater Canal here passes through the hill by a tunnel of about one-third of a mile in length.
THE GREAT MIAMI RIVER, four miles below, rises in the northwestern part of this state, and, flowing in a southwesterly direc- tion, enters the Ohio, forming, for a short distance above and at its mouth, the boundary line between Ohio and Indiana. Its principal tributary is Mad River, which rises in Logan county, and, after trav- ersing a fine, populous country, enters the Miami at Dayton, seventy miles above its mouth. It flows through an extremely fertile and beautiful country. On its banks are numerous fine mill-seats. There is no land in the world, perhaps, richer than the Miami bottoms.
There are several towns, of considerable importance in the state, situated on its banks ; among which are Hamilton, Dayton, Troy, and Piqua.
LAWRENCEBURGH, two miles below, is the county-seat of Dearborn county, la. It is situated in a very rich bottom, and is the depot for the immense productions of the fertile valleys of the Miami and Whitewater rivers. The older part of the town is built on the first bottom which is frequently liable to inundation. Several years ago, buildings were commenced on the second bottom, and that por- tion is now rapidly improving. It is called New Lawrenceburg.
The Whitewater Valley Canal terminates here, and affords fine water power. This canal extends to Cambridge, on the National Road, a distance of seventy-six miles, through some of the richest lands of Indiana. Several towns of considerable importance are situated on it ; among them, Harrison, Brookville, Connersville, and Cambridge.
Lawrenceburgh contains five churches, a large number of dry goods' and grocery stores, &c, a court-house, three large flouring mills, two saw mills, one corn mill, one oil mill, one carding machine, and one of the largest distilleries in the west, turning out one hun- dred barrels of whisky per day. Population, three thousand five hundred. It was incorporated a city in 1846. The county-seat was, some years ago, removed from Lawrenceburgh to Wilmington, sev- eral miles in the interior. About three years ago, however, it was brought back to Lawrenceburgh. At Wilmington, there is a very flourishing county academy.
38 THE OHIO RIVER.
PETERSBURG!!, two miles below, in Boone counfy, Ky., is a small village containing two churches, two stores, two schools, and a population of two hundred and fifty. This place occupies the site of an aboriginal burying-ground, and many remains of it have been found, such as bones, earthenware vessels, and utensils of stone, cu- riously carved. A short distance above the town are the remains of an ancient fortification. A portion of the walls, about four feet high and extending from the bank of the Ohio to Taylor's creek, forming an area of about twenty acres of ground, may yet be seen.
Burlington, the county-seat, is eight miles in the interior.
AURORA, two miles below, at the mouth of Hogan creek, is a very thriving and business town in Dearborn county, la., containing a population of two thousand three hundred. It was first laid off in 1819. In January, 1848, it was incorporated as a city. It contains two churches, twelve stores, one saw-mill, one large distillery, and a number of coopering establishments, in which a large business is done. Ten thousand hogs were packed here in 1847. A steamboat plies between this place and Cincinnati regularly every day.
BELLEV1EW, six miles below, in Kentucky, is a small village containing two stores, and six or eight houses.
RISING SUN, three miles below, is the county-seat of Ohio county, Indiana. It is beautifully situated on an elevated bank of the river, and is a very flourishing and business place. There is a large cotton and woolen factory here, doing an extensive business. Since the establishment of this as the county-seat (some four years ago), it has been improving rapidly. It now contains three churches, an academy, a beautiful court-house, a printing-office, a large number of stores, two mills and a distillery, an extensive tannery, and a population of about two thousand. The country back of it is very beautiful and fertile.
BIG BONE LICK CREEK, twelve miles below, in Kentucky. About two miles from the mouth of this creek is the place celebrated as the Big Bone Lick Springs. The water is impregnated with salt, and the place derives its name from the immense number of bones of the Mastodon or Mammoth, and the Arctic Elephant, found scat- tered all over the surface of the earth. The first account of the visit of any white man to this place was by James Douglas, of Virginia, in 1773, who made use of the rib-bones of the animals for tent-poles. The dimension of the bones, as described by those who have found them, indicate the former existence of animals much larger than any now found on the globe. Two of the tusks found here were eleven feet in length and at the large end six or seven inches in diameter. The thigh-bones were about five feet in length, and a straight line drawn from one end of the ribs to the other would be five feet. A collection of these bones was made in 1803, by Dr. Goforth ; another in 1S05, by order of President Jefferson ; a third in 1819, by the Western Museum Society; and a fourth in 1831, by Mr. Finnell, of Kentucky.
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40 THE OHIO RIVER.
This is the place where, according to the tradition of the Delaware Indians, as related by Mr. Jefferson, such herds of the Mammoth came to destroy the game of the Red Man, that the Great Spirit took pity on him, and, seizing his lightning, descended to a rock on a neighboring hill (where his seat and the" print of his feet are still to be seen), and hurled his bolts among them until all were slain except the Big Bull, who presented his forehead to the shafts and shook them off as they fell; missing one, at last, it wounded him in his side, whereupon, springing round, he bounded over the Ohio, the Wabash, the Illinois, and finally over the great lakes, where he is still living. Just below the mouth of Big Bone Lick creek is
HAMILTON, a small village in Boone county, Ky., containing three or four stores, and a population of two hundred.
PATRIOT, two miles below, in Switzerland county, la., contains five stores, three churches, and a population of about five hundred.
WARSAW, eleven miles below, is the county-seat of Gallatin county, Ky., and was formerly known as Fredericksburg. It con- tains a court-house and county buildings, two churches, three schools, one newspaper, twelve stores and groceries, two pork-houses, one tobacco factory, one flouring mill, and a distillery. Population eight hundred. This is a place of considerable trade, and exports a large quantity of produce and tobacco. The country is hilly but very pro- ductive— raising fine crops of corn, wheat, and tobacco. It also abounds in fine timber.
NEW YORK, sometimes called Little York, one mile below, in Switzerland county, la., is a small village, containing three or four stores, and about one hundred inhabitants.
VEVAY, ten miles below, is the county-seat of Switzerland county, la. It was settled in 1S04, by a number of Swiss families, to whom Congress made a favorable grant of land for the purpose of com- mencing the cultivation of the grape. The colony soon received a considerable addition of numbers, from the mountains of Switzerland, and, in remembrance of their native country, they called it Vevay. They immediately commenced the cultivation of the grape, and have carried it on ever since. The grape found to succeed best is the Cape grape, from which a considerable quantity of wine, resembling claret, is made. Vevay contains a court-house, an academy, a print- ing-office, and a number of stores. Population about one thousand five hundred.
GHENT, opposite Vevay, in Carroll county, Ky., is a handsome village, containing three churches, five stores, one tobacco manufac- tory, and a population of three hundred.
CARROLLTON, formerly called Port William, ten miles below, at the mouth of the Kentucky River, is the county-seat of Carroll county, Ky. This point was first settled by a Mr. Elliott, in 1784. In March, 17S5, his house was attacked by a body of Indians and
42 THE OHIO RIVER.
burned, and himself killed. In 1786, Capt. Ellison erected a block- house, but was driven from it by the Indians. In 1789, Gen. Charles Scott erected a block-house, and fortified it by pickets. It was occu- pied until 1792, when the present town was laid out.
"About four miles from Carrollton, on the Muddy Fork of White Run, in the bed of the creek, on a lime-stone rock, is the form of a human being, in a sitting posture; and near by, is the form of one lying on his back, about six feet long, and distinctly marked."
Carrollton contains a court-house and public buildings, one acade- my, three churches, seven stores, two piano-forte manufactories, two corn-mills, one steam saw mill, one carding factory, one rope-walk, and a population of eight hundred.
THE KENTUCKY RIVER rises in the Cumberland Mountains, and interlocks with the head-waters of the Licking and Cumberland rivers — length about two hundred miles. It is navigable for flatboats one hundred and fifty miles. To Frankfort, sixty miles from its mouth, it has been made navigable by means of locks and dams for steamboats of one hundred and fifty tons burden, and regular steam- boats ply daily between Cincinnati and Frankfort. For a great part of its course it flows in a channel cut out of perpendicular banks of limestone. Stone-coal is found in its banks in several places, and a species of marble which receives a fine polish.
Near its mouth, there are many remains of ancient fortifications of immense size, numerous mounds, and ancient curiosities are found on its banks.
On the banks of this river above Frankfort is situated Boones- borough, celebrated in the history of the west for its memorable sieges by the Indians. The fort was built by Daniel Boone, in 1775.
The scenery along the river in grandeur and beauty is second only in America to that on the Hudson.
FRANKFORT, the seat of government of the state, is situated on the east bank, sixty miles from the mouth. It stands in a deep valley, surrounded by precipitous hills. It is compactly built, and most of the buildings display great taste in their erection. It contains a fine state-house, a court-house, penitentiary, state bank, two news- papers, thirty stores of different kinds, four churches, three bagging factories. Population two thousand six hundred. The city wTas first established in L786, and the seat of government located here in 1792.
The celebrated Harrodsburgh Springs are about thirty miles from Frankfort, and eight miles from the Kentucky River.
PRESTON, a small village just below the mouth of the Kentucky River, contains one store, and about one hundred inhabitants.
MADISON, ten miles below, the county-seat of Jefferson county, la., is one of the most flourishing places on the river. "Within the past few years, it has increased very rapidly. It is beautifully situ- ated, and, although so near the two cities of Cincinnati and Louis- ville, promises to be quite a large city. It is the depot and shipping- point for goods for the interior of the state, and also for shipping
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44 THE OHIO RIVER.
produce up and down the river. A railroad runs from it to Indian- apolis, the capital of the state— a distance of ninety-five miles. There is, also, an office of the Telegraph established here.
Madison is well and compactly built, and contains seven churches, a large number of dry-goods, grocery, forwarding, commission, and other stores, one mill, several factories of different kinds, and a pop- ulation of eight thousand. Three steamboats are owned here. There are, also, several large pork-packing establishments, at which seventy- five thousand hogs were packed in 1847.
INDIANAPOLIS, the capital of Indiana, is situated on White River, in the midst of a very fertile country. It is one hundred and eight miles northwest of Cincinnati, and five hundred and seventy- three miles from Washington City. It has a fine state-house and public buildings, a large number of churches, schools, stores, and business places, and ranks high for morality and intelligence. It is rapidly growing into importance. The population is now about six thousand.
MILTON, in Trimball county, Ky., a little above Madison, is a small village containing two stores and a few houses, and about one hundred and fifty inhabitants. Bedford is the county-seat.
HANOVER LANDING, six miles below, in Jefferson county, la. A few miles in the interior is South Hanover, at which place is South Hanover College, a literary institution of considerable celebrity.
NEW LONDON, four miles below, is a small place, in Indiana, containing a few houses.
BETHLEHEM, eight miles below, in Indiana, is a small village, containing three stores, one church, and about four hundred inhab- itants.
WESTPORT, six miles below, in Oldham county, Ky., formerly the county-seat. It contains two churches, three stores, one large flouring-mill, and about three hundred inhabitants. At La Grange, the present county-seat, is located a flourishing Masonic college, under, the supervision of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky.
CHARLESTON LANDING, twelve miles below, is the landing- point for Charleston, in the interior, and county-seat of Clark county, Indiana.
UTICA, five miles below, in the same county, is a very thriving village, of about three hundred inhabitants.
JEFFER.SONVILLE, nine miles below, in the same county, is situated just above the Falls of the Ohio. It commands a fine pros- pect of the surrounding country, including a view of the Falls. It contains several churches, a land-office, printing-office, a number of stores, and a population of two thousand four hundred. The peni- tentiary of the slate is located here. It is a large building, and well- arranged for the confinement of the convicts. About a mile back of
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46 THE OHIO RIVER
the town is a fine spring and watering-place, with accommodations for visiters.
LOUISVILLE, one mile below, is the county-seat of Jefferson county, Kentucky. It is situated at the Falls of the Ohio, six hun- dred and seven miles from Pittsburgh, and fourteen hundred and eighty from New Orleans. It was laid off by Capt. Thomas Bullitt, of Va., in August, 1773, but no settlement was made until 1778, when a small party arrived here, with George Rogers Clark. and settled on what is now called Corn Island, close to the Kentucky shore. After she posts occupied by the British on the Wabash had been taken by General Clark, they removed to the spot on which Louisville now stands, in the fall of the same year. They built a block-house here, which was subsequently removed and a large fort erected in 1782. called Fort Nelson. In 1780, the town was established by an act of the legislature of Virginia, under whose jurisdiction Kentucky then was. At this time, the population was only thirty. In 1800, it was 600; in 1810, 1,300; in 1820, 4,000; in 1830, 10,090; in 1840, 21.000; in 1843, 28,000; 1845, 32,000; and at present it is supposed to be 40,000. It is now the most important commercial city in Kentucky, and one of the most important in the west. It was formerly deemed very unhealthy, but is now one of the healthiest cities on the river. It is built on a spacious sloping plane, seventy feet above low-water mark. The streets are broad and beautiful, and laid out at right angles with each other. It contains a city hall and court-house (which are not yet finished, but modeled in an immense and beauti- ful style), a medical institute and university, two hospitals, an asylum for the blind, thirty churches, twenty-eight schools, a magnetic tele- graph office, two orphan asylums, a work-house, and a large number of religious, literary, and benevolent institutions. There are four daily, four Iri-weekly, and ten weekly newspapers, one monthly and one quarterly periodical published here. There are, also, a large number of foundries, rolling-mills, flouring-mills, and factories of different kinds, all in successful operation. The packing of pork forms a great item of the business of the city: 97,200 hogs were packed here in 1847.
The falls of the river at this place, obstruct navigation entirely at low stages of water. To obviate this, a canal has been cut round them, to Shippingsport, a distance of two miles. It is a work of stupendous labor, being cut a greater part of its length through solid rock. It is, in some places, forty feet deep, and of sufficient width to pass steamboats through, and affords fine water-power for the mill- seats below the locks. The canal is owned by an incorporated com- pany— the General Government holding nearly one-half the stock.
On the24lh of September, 1816, the steamboat Washington, under the command of Capt. Shreve, made the first voyage ever made by a steam vessel from Louisville to New Orleans. On the 3d of March, 1817, she started on another trip, and made the time to New Orleans and back in forty-one days; the ascending voyage being made in twenty- five days. A public dinner was given to the Captain by the citizens af Louisville, at which he predicted, that the day was not far distant
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48 THE OHIO RIVER.
when the trip would be made in ten days. It has since been made in less than Jive days.
In a report submitted to the convention held at Chicago in 1847, by Thomas Allen, Esq., of St. Louis, it is stated that the number of steamboats engaged in the trade of the western waters in 1846 was twelve hundred, valued at sixteen millions of dollars, and also four thousand keel and flat boats. The total value of the domestic pro- ducts put afloat on the waters of the valley is two hundred and sixty millions; and the value of the whole commerce four hundred and thirty millions, being double the amount of the total foreign com- merce of the United States. The number of steamboats lost in 1842 was sixty-eight; in 1846, thirty-six.
SHIPPINGSPORT, two miles below Louisville, at the foot of the canal, is a small and rather dilapidated village containing one fine mill, four small stores and groceries, and a population of about one hundred and fifty.
PORTLAND, one mile below, in Kentucky, is a place of some importance, presenting a business-looking appearance. A line of omnibusses run from it to Louisville every few moments in the day, and it is connected with New Albany, on the opposite side, by a ferry- boat, which plies almost constantly. Portland contains a number of very good buildings, six or eight stores, and a population of about six hundred.
NEW ALBANY, opposite Portland, the county-seat of Floyd county, la., is one of the largest and most commercial places in the state. It is well-built, and, with its wide and beautiful streets, pre- sents a fine appearance. It contains nine churches, a male and fe- male seminary, a tyceum, a theological college, a branch of the State Bank of Indiana, four schools, several extensive ship-yards, at which from ten to fifteen steamboats, sloops, and schooners are annually built. There are also several foundries and machine-shops, doing a large business. Considerable attention is being paid to boat-building and repairing, and a fine dock, worked by two steam-engines, is in course of erection. Large subscriptions have recently been made for the purpose of constructing a railroad from this place to Salem — a distance of about thirty miles — to connect with one contemplated from Cincinnati to St. Louis. The work is in course of progression, and when completed will add very much to the commercial facilities of the place. The population is now about six thousand.
SALT RIVER, nineteen miles below, in Kentucky, so-called from the numerous salt-licks on its banks. The first salt-works in the state were erected on this river, about three miles from Shepherds- ville, the county-seat. A garrison was also established here, called Mud garrison, to protect the salt-workers and their families. The river was much frequented by the Indians, for the purpose of hunt- ing the game that resorted there for salt, and many severe conflicts took place between them and the whites, which form interesting pas- sages in the history of the state. In May, 1778, a boat owned by
T H fc 0 H I O R I V E R. 49
Henry Crist left Louisville, \vi:h twelve armed men and a woman, with the necessary utensils for salt-making', and startled up Salt Riven They were decoyed to the bank by sounds resembling a turkey's call, and as two of the men sprang upon shore, they were fired upon by a large body of Indians. They ran back toward the boat.' when a most bloody and desperate encounter took place, in which eleven of the boat's crew were killed, the twelfth, Mr. Crist, horribly mangled, and the woman taken prisoner and carried to Canada. Mr. Crist made his escape by crawling through the woods for three days and nights, on his hands and knees, amid the most horrible tortures. He lingered for a year with his wounds, but finally recovered, and after- ward served in the legislature of Kentucky, and also in Congress in 1808. It was subsequently ascertained by the woman who had been taken prisoner and redeemed, that the number of the Indians was one hundred and twenty, of which about thirty were killed in the en- gagement.
WEST POINT, just below the mourn of Salt River, in Hardin county, is a small thriving village, containing four stores. A boat- yard has been established here recently, which is commencing an extensive business.
BRANDENBURG, eighteen miles below, is the county-seat of Mead county, Ky. It is built on a high bluff of the river, and con- tains a court-house, two churches, fourteen stores and groceries, and two flouring mills. Considerable quantities of corn and tobacco are shipped from this place. Population six hundred.
At the southern border of the count}'', and just at the junction of the counties of Hardin, Breckenridge, and Mead, is a place called Big Spring, deriving its name from a large spring which bursts up from the earth, and, flowing off two or three hundred yards, in a stream large enough to supply a mill, sinks again and disappears.
MAUCKPORT, three miles below, is a small village in Harrison county, la.
NORTHAMPTON, seven miles below, is a small village in the same county.
AMSTERDAM, two and a-half miles below, is a small village in the same counter.
LEAVENWORTH, eight miles below, in Crawford county, la., is .situated on a high bank, and is a place of considerable husiness. It contains nine stores, a church, a newspaper printing-office, and a pop- ulation of about four hundred.
FREDONIA, four and a-half miles below, is the county-seat of Crawford county, la., and is situated on a very high hill, a short dis- tance from the river. It contains three or four stores, and a popula- tion of about two hundred and fifty.
ALTON, fourteen miles below, at the lower side of the mouth of battle Blue River, is a small village in Perry county, la. 4
50 THE OHIO RIVER
CONCORDIA, ten miles below, is a small village in Mead county, Ky., containing forty or fifty inhabitants. It is two miles above Flint Island. .
ROME, twelve miles below, opposite the mouth of Sinking Creek; is the county-seat of Perry county, Indiana. It is a small and very dilapidated looking place, containing a court-house, three stores, and a population of three hundred.
STEPHENSPORT, opposite, at the mouth of Sinking Creek, is a handsome little village in Breckenridge county, Kentucky. A con- siderable business is done here, in shipping the productions of the interior country. Population two hundred.
SINKING CREEK, is a considerable stream supplying abundance of water for mills during the whole year. Mr. Collins, in his ad- mirable history of Kentucky, says: "Six or seven miles from its source, the creek suddenly. sinks beneath the earth, showing no trace of its existence, for five or six miles, when it re-appears above ground and flows into the Ohio. On this creek is to be seen a natural rock mill-dam, eight feet high and forty feet wide, which answers all the purposes of a dam, to a mill which has been erected at the place by a Mr. Hueston. Near the creek is a large cave, called Penitentiary cave, which has never been fully explored. Some of the apartments are said to rival, in the splendor and magnificence of their scenery, the celebrated Mammoth Cave, in Edmonson county, Ky. In one of the rooms, about one hundred yards from the mouth of the cave, the roof is from sixty to seventy feet high, and on the floor there are three natural basins or troughs of cool, clear water, of very remark- able construction and appearance, fifteen feet in length, four fleet wide, and twelve inches deep. These basins are elevated above the level of the floor, in the form of troughs, and it is remarkable that the stone which forms the sides and ends of the basins, do not exceed in thickness the blade of a table-knife."
CLOVERPORT, ten miles below, in the same county, is an im- portant point for shipping of tobacco, of which fine crops are grown in the county. Other produce is also forwarded from this point. It contains a population of seven hundred. There are extensive beds of fine coal in its vicinity. Four miles in the interior are the White Sulphur, Breckenridge, and Tar Springs.
HAWSVILLE, fourteen miles below, is the county-seat of Han- cock county, Ky. It contains a court-house and two churches, two schools, ten stores, and a population of five hundred. It derives considerable trade from its extensive mines of coal, which furnishes the steamboats with an abundant supply at cheap rates ; besides ship- ping large quantities to New Orleans. There is a natural fortification about four miles above this place and a short distance from the river. It consists of a circular cliff of from fifty to one hundred feet ir height, so projecting at the top as to be impossible for access except at one place.
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CANNELTON, on the opposite side of the river, in Indiana, is & handsome little village, with one church, several stores, and a popu- lation of three hundred. It is also engaged largely in the coal trade.
TROY, six miles below, in Perry county, la., is a small village, with one church, three small stores and groceries, and a population of about two hundred.
MAXVILLE, one mile below, in Indiana, at the lower side of the mouth of Anderson's river, is a small place with six or seven houses.
BATESVILLE, two miles below, at the mouth of Crooked Creek, la., is about the same size of Maxville.
LEWISPORT, three miles below, in Hancock county, Ky., is a small village extending for some distance along the river. It contains about thirty houses, three stores and groceries, and a population of two hundred and twenty-five.
ROCKPORT, thirteen miles below, in Spencer county, la., is a small village, situated on Rock Lady Washington. This rock is a formation of sand-stone, which rises in a circular form to the height of thirty feet above the first bank of the river. It presents a bold front to the river, and affords quite a relief to the eye after looking over the continuous succession of low bottom-land, which presents itself for miles. The position is a very commanding and beautiful one for a town, and the surrounding country exceedingly rich and fertile, producing large crops of corn, &c.
OWENSBURGH, nine miles below, is the county-seat of Daviess county, Ky. It is a very handsome place, situated in a fertile region, abounding in mineral resources. It contains a court-house, four churches, an academy, thirteen stores and groceries, and a population of one thousand.
This county was named after Col. Joseph Hamilton Daviess, who was one of the ablest lawyers and most eloquent orators of Kentucky. He was a brother-in-law of Chief Justice Marshall. In 1811, he joined the army under Gen. Harrison, which marched against the Indians on the Wabash, and received the appointment of Major. On the 7th of November, of the same year, he fell at the head of his troops, while making a charge on the Indians in the celebrated battle of Tippecanoe.
BON HARBOR, three miles below, in the same county, is im- proving very rapidly, and promises to become an extensive manufac- turing place. As its name implies, it has an excellent harbor. There is a fine coal-mine about three-fourths of a mile back of it, which furnishes abundance of coal of .a fine quality. A railroad extends from the mines to the river. One of the largest cotton and woolen manufactories in the western country is situated here. The popula- tion of the place is about two hundred and fifty, principally consist- ing of those engaged in the manufactory and mining.
►,Le«i9Port
54 THE OHIO RIVER.
ENTERPRISE, three miles below, is a small village in Spencei county, Indiana. The country adjacent to it, is a rich, level bottom, heavily timbered.
POINT ISABEL, three miles below, in the same county, at the head of French Islands, is a small place, with six or seven houses.
NEWBURGH, formerly called Sprinkleburgh, thirteen miles be- low, in Warrick county. la., is a flourishing town containing three churches, four stores, three large commission warehouses, one saw and grist mill, and a population of about four hundred. It has grown rapidly within the last few years, almost all of the houses being new. The country in the rear of it is very fertile, and lays beautifully for agricultural purposes. Booneville is the county-seat.
GREEN RIVER, six miles below, in Kentucky, rises in the cen- ter of the state, and takes a westerly course, until having received the Big Barren River on the south, it turns to the northwest. The current is gentle, and the water generally deep. It is made naviga- ble by means of locks and dams. Steamboats ascend to Bowling Green, on the Big Barren River, twenty miles below the Mammoth Cave, and, during a great part of the year, to the cave, a distance of one hundred and sixty-five miles, bringing down large quantities of corn, tobacco, and other products.
The Mammoth Cave is one of the most stupendous wonders of nature that has ever yet been discovered. It is situated in Edmon- son county, Ky., equi-distant from the cities of Louisville and Nash- ville (about ninety miles from each), and immediately on the nearest road between those two places. It is within half a mile of Green River. A full description of its many avenues and wonderful re- cesses, rivers, &c, may be found in a work published by Messrs. Mor- ton &Griswold, of Louisville, to which I would refer all who may wish to learn more of this great curiosity than space can be afforded for in this work. The cave has already been explored for more than eighteen miles, and it is supposed that even this is but scarcely on the threshold of its vast extent. It contains two hundred and twenty- six avenues, forty-seven domes, eight cataracts, several rivers, and twenty-three pits, most of them of surprising beauty and startling grandeur. It is visited by great numbers of visiters, and fine accom- modations have been made for them, in a magnificent hotel ; where every facility of guides, &c., can be obtained to explore the cave. I extract some brief descriptions of it from the work already referred to, hoping that the readers will obtain it and satisfy themselves with a more extended description :
" For a distance of two miles from the cave, as you approach it from the southeast, the country is level. It was, until recently, a prairie, on which, however, the oak, chestnut, and hickory are now growing." " The hotel is a large edifice, two hundred feet long by forty wide, with piazzas extending the length of the building above and below." "The cave is about two hundred yards from the hotel, and you proceed to it down a lovely and romantic dell, rendered urn brageous by a forest of trees and grape-vines; and, passing by the
THE OHIO RIVER. 55
ruins of saltpetre furnaces, and large mounds of ashes, you turn ab- ruptly to the right and behold the mouth of the great cavern, and as suddenly feel the coldness of the air. It is an appalling spectacle — how dark, how dismal, how dreary! Descending some thirty feet, down rather rude steps of stone, you are fairly under the arch of this 'nether world' — before you, in looking outward, is seen a small stream of water falling from the face of a crowning rock, with a wild, pat- tering sound, upon the ruins below, and disappearing in a deep pit — behind you, all is gloom and darkness! Obtaining a lamp from the o-uide, you follow him in a descending course for about a hundred feet when the passage is intercepted by a rough stone wall, the en- trance to which is closed by a gate. This being opened, so strong is the current of air, that the lights are almost instantaneously extin- guished. Relighting the lamps, the visiter then proceeds to the great vestibule, or ante-chamber, two hundred feet in length by one hun- dred and fifty wide, with a roof which is as flat and level as if fin- ished by the trowel of the plasterer, of fifty, or sixty, or even more, feet in "height. Two passages, each a hundred feet in width, open into it at opposite extremities." "Passing on, you come to the Great Bat Room, or Audubon's Avenue. Here the workmen who were en- gaged in 1814 in manufacturing saltpetre, disinterred many skeletons of 'human beings, which seemed to have belonged to a giant race. Audubon's Avenue is more than a mile long, fifty or sixty feet wide, and of about the same height. Passing the Little Bat Room, a branch of this avenue, you enter the Main Cave, or Grand Gallery, a vast tunnel extending for miles, having a width and height of fifty feet. Passing down this, little over a quarter of a mile, you enter the Church, where religious services have often been performed. It is about one hundred feet in diameter, with a ceiling sixty-three feet high, having a solid projection of the wall about fifteen feet from the floor, serving as a pulpit, and back of it a place for an organ and choir. Proceed- ing a short distance, you arrive at the Second Hoppers, where are to be seen the remains of the saltpetre manufactories, of which the dirt of the cave yields such immense quantities. During the war of 1814, in one year, the contract for saltpetre from this cave amounted to twenty thousand dollars. Proceeding along, you pass through the Gothic Gallery, Gothic Avenue, so named from their architectural shape. The avenue is two miles long, about forty feet wide and fif- teen high. About fifty feet from the head of the stairs leading from the main avenue, two mummies were found in 1813, in a fine state of preservation. One of them was a female, with her wardrobe and ornaments placed at her side. The body was in a perfect state of preservation, and sitting erect. The arms were folded, and the hands laid across the bosom. Around the wrists was wound a small cord, designed, probably, to keep them in the posture in which they were first placed. Around the body and neck, there were wrapped two deer-skins. These skins appear to have been dressed in some mode different from what is now practiced by any people of whom we have any knowledge. The hair of the skins was cut off very near the surface, and they were ornamented with the imprints of vines and leaves, which were sketched with a substance perfectly white.
56 THE OHIO RIVER.
Outside of these two skins was a large square sheet, which was either wove or knit. The fabric was of the inner bark of a tree, resem- bling the South Sea Island cloth or matting." The body was about five feet ten inches in length, and weighed but fourteen pounds. At its side lay a pair of moccasins, a knapsack and reticule, all made very neatly of knit or woven bark. Other articles of apparel were found in the knapsack, which evidenced great skill in their manufacture. Proceeding on, you pass the Stalagmite Hall or Gothic. Chapel, which "forcibly reminds one of the old cathedrals of Europe." A large number of beautiful chambers follow, which have appropriate names, and are all matters of great curiosity, but which we have not space to mention. The Star Chamber, further on, "presents the most perfect optical illusion imaginable. In looking up to the ceiling, which is very high, you seem to see the very firmament itself, stud- ed with stars, and afar off a comet with its long bright tail." Fur- ther on is the chief city or Temple, which is thus described by Lee, in his "Notes on the Mammoth Cave:" "The Temple is an immense vault, covering an area of two acres, and covered by a single dome of solid rock, one hundred and twenty feet high. It excels in size the Cave of Staffa; and rivals the celebrated vault in the Grotto of An- tiparos, which is said to be the largest in the world." * * "Everyone has heard of the dome of the Mosque of St. Sophia, of St. Peter's and St. Paul's; they are never spoken of but in terms of admiration, as the chief works of architecture, and among the noblest and most stupendous examples of what man can do, when aided by science; and yet, when compared with the dome of this Temple, they sink Into comparative insignificance. Such is the surpassing grandeur of Nature's works." There is also the Great Dome, four hundred feet high, with a waterfall from its summit; the River Hall, the ceil- ing of which "stretches away before you, vast and grand as the firmament at midnight;" the Dead Sea and River Styx, which seem to answer well their names, and. the Echo, a river " wide and deep enough to float the largest steamer." In these rivers are found the remark- able eyeless fish, having not the least indication of an eye, or any organ similar to it. Four miles beyond the Echo, is Cleveland's Avenue, after entering which you may ascend a steep and rugged hill about twenty feet high, and find yourself at the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, about twelve feet square, decorated with stalactite in a most beautiful manner. A passage conducts into a room a few feet below the chapel, in which stands a grave, having the appear- ance of having been hewn out of a living rock. Cleveland's Avenue is three miles long, and adorned with most beautiful formations of crystals. There are many other places of great interest, and which strike the beholder with admiration and awe. The cave is dry, and exceedingly conducive to health. It is visited by many invalids, for the purpose of inhaling its air; and in many instances proved highly beneficial. It should be visited by all who can do so, for the pur- pose of witnessing one of the most sublime and gigantic works of nature to be seen in any country.
EVANSVILLE, eight and a-half miles below, is the county-seat
Green K.
58 THE OHIO RIVER.
of Vanderburgh county, la. It is situated on a finely elevated bank, and shows to considerable advantage, in ascending and descending the river. It is a place of considerable commercial importance, de- riving a great trade from the Wabash River and the rich country in the interior. A canal is about being constructed (20 miles of which is complete), connecting it with Terre Haute on the Wabash, which will give a continuous chain of navigation to the lakes on the North and the Eastern cities. Evansville is well and compactly built, and contains several churches, a male and female academy three printing- offices ( two publishing daily papers ), a large number of stores, a branch of the State Bank of Indiana, a large flouring mill, a saw mill, wool carding factory, several other manufactories, a distillery, Slc. Arrangements are being made to build a fine wharf, which will add greatly to its appearance and business. The population is about 4,500. The country adjacent is very fertile, and is being rapidly set- tied. About one mile in the interior are the Pigeon Springs, a fine watering place, and well fitted up for the accommodation of visitors.
HENDERSON, twelve miles below, is the county-seat of Hender- son county, Ky. It is a flourishing place, and the principal shipping- port for the produce of the country bordering on Green river, export- ing large quantities of tobacco, corn, &c. It contains a court house, six churches, four schools, twelve stores and groceries, five large to- bacco factories, ^md a population of about 1,500. The country adja- cent is highly adapted to the cultivation of tobacco and corn. Iron ore is also found in it, and large beds of stone coal, of an excellent quality. About 75,000 bushels of corn, and 7,000,000 lbs. of tobacco are annually exported from it.
MOUNT VERNON, twenty-six miles below, is the county-seat of Posey county, la., and contains a population of one thousand.
UNIONTOWN, ten miles below, at the mouth of Highland creek rn Union county, Ky., is a thriving town, shipping large quantities of corn to the Southern markets. It contains five stores and groceries, and a population of 300. The country is very fertile, yielding fine crops of corn. A few miles from Uniontown, on Highland creek, is a fine Tar spring. There are a number of curiosities in this county, worthy of observation. One is a large flat rock, with perfect impres- sions of the naked feet of men and animals deeply imprinted in it. A few miles from CaseyVille is a singular rock, fifty feet high, two feet thick, and twenty wide, resembling a blacksmith's anvil, from which appearance it has derived the name of "Anvil Rock." There is also a subterranean cavern, which is thought to be of great extent, but has not yet been explored to a great distance.
WABASH RIVER, five miles below, in Indiana. This beautiful river takes its rise in the north-western part of the state of Ohio, and passing in a south-western direction through the state of Indiana, bends to the south, and forms the boundary between the state of In diana and Illinois. It is navigable for the common river craft about four hundred miles ; and has been ascended by steam boats to Terre
THE OHIO RIVER. 59
Haute and Lafayette. It receives, in its course, the waters of many respectable tributaries, among the most important of which is White river, which passes through the state- from east to west, and waters a great extent of fertile and well settled country. Perhaps no river in the world, of its magnitude, drains a more extensive and fertile country than the Wabash and its tributaries. It forms the heart of the state of Indiana ; and most of this great body of land has already been purchased, and taken up by actual settlers. For a number of years, the immigration from the Eastern States, and also from West- ern Virginia and Ohio, has been very large ; and under the judicious cultivation of the settlers, much of the disease (fever and ague) which operated so severely against the early occupants, has ceased.
VINCENNES is situated on the east bank of the Wabash, one hundred and fifty miles above its mouth. This place, after Kaskas- kia, is the oldest settled place in the western world. It was settled by the French, in 1735. It is contiguous to a large and beautiful prairie, five thousand acres of which are cultivated as a common field, after the ancient French custom. It was for a long time the seat of the territorial government, and still has more trade than any other place in the state. The site of the town is level, and laid off with much taste. The houses have extensive gardens back of them, filled, after the French fashion, with crowded fruit trees. It has, of late, rapidly improved, and contains between three and four hundred houses.
NEW HARMONY, fifty-four miles below Vincennes, is also situ- ated on the east bank of this river, and is sixteen miles from the nearest point of the Ohio, though about one hundred miles from the mouth of the Wabash, following the meanders of the river. It is surrounded by a fine, rich, and heavily timbered country, interspersed with small, rich prairies. Its situation is high, healthy, and well chosen. It was first settled in 1814, by a religious sect of Germans, called Harmonites, under the guidance and control of George Rapp, in whose name all the lands and property were held. They soon erected about one hundred large and substantial buildings. They laid their lands off with the most perfect regularity, and were won- derfully successful in converting a wilderness into a finely cultivated plantation, in a short time. They had even the luxury of a botanic garden, and a green house. Their great house of assemblage, with its wings and appendages, was nearly one hundred feet square. There they continued to live and labor in common, until the year 1824, when the celebrated Robert Owen, of New Lanark, in Scotland, came and purchased out the entire possession of the Harmonites, at the sum of one hundred and ninety thousand dollars, for the purpose of establishing a community upon the plan of his « social system," and corresponding with his " new views of society." He was joined by two of his sons, and by Mr. M'Clure, a wealthy man from Scot- land : and in a short time his new community swelled to above seven hundred persons. But discord soon rose among its members, and one after another left the community, until the "social system" was at length abandoned.
60 THE OHIO RIVER.
There are several places of considerable importance on this river, among which are Terre Haute, 205 miles from the mouth, and La- fayette, 312 miles. The Wabash and Erie Canal extends from this latter place to the Miami Canal at Junction, giving thereby a contin- uous navigation to Cincinnati, on the Ohio, and to Toledo, on the Lakes. From Lafayette to Cincinnati, by canal, is 330 miles ; to Toledo, 250.
RALEIGH, six miles below, is a collection of a few houses, in Union county, Ky.
SHAWNEETOWN, five miles below, is the county-seat of Galla- tin county, Illinois. It has a very pleasant looking situation, but is liable to be overflown, and is generally considered healthy. It is a point of great business, and large shipments of corn and other pro- duce are made. It was laid out in 1814, and contains, at present, three churches, a United States land office, a number of stores, a court house, a fine banking house, and about 1,200 inhabitants. It acquired considerable celebrity by its celebrated bank explosion, in 1843. Twelve miles in the interior, are the great United States Sa- lines.
CASEYVILLE, ten miles below, is a small village in Union county, Ky., containing a population of about 200. There is an abundant supply of fine stone coal in its vicinity.
BATTERY ROCK, two miles below, in Illinois, is a high, rocky bluff, extending for some miles along the river, giving a highly pic- turesque appearance to the scenery.
CAVE-IN-ROCK, twelve miles below, is a much celebrated place, and viewed with interest by all travelers on this river. It was the rendezvous, about the year 1801, of a celebrated outlaw, by the namo of Mason, and his comrades, who subsisted by plundering the flat- boats and arks, which descended the river with produce, or waylay- ing the traders, on their return from New Orleans, with the produce of their sales — robbing and murdering them. They continued their nefarious business for several years, until their depredations became so alarming, that the Governor of Mississippi offered a reward of five hundred dollars for Mason's head. Mason was shot, and his head carried to Washington, then the capital of Mississippi, by one of his own band, named Harpe, a notorious outlaw, who had escaped from Kentucky. The following description of the cave is given by a vis- itor to it:
"Perhaps one of the most beautiful panoramic views which the traveler meets in our extensive country, is afforded by the bold, rocky bluffs, with the intervening valleys, which meet the eye, as one de- scends the stream. Cedars cover the high woodlands above and be- low the cave, and civilization, which has extended its rnde hand over all the surrounding country, has left this romantic spot untouched. The entrance to the cave is nearly semi-circular ; and when the river is high, it is on a level with the water. The passage, which is twenty feet high, affords admission into a spacious square apartment, whose
62 THE OHIO RIVER.
dimensions may be fairly stated at about one hundred and twenty- five feet. Above the room is a magnificent chamber, whose natural limestone formations greatly resemble the carvings of a Gothic ca- thedral. The entrance to this beautiful room is by a chimney, so to speak, in the roof of the first. An opening at one end of the cave leads into a deep vault, extending far into the heart of the rock, and the traveler may amuse himself, by counting the many seconds which elapse, between the time when a stone is cast into the abyss, and the return of its reverberations."
ELIZABETH, six miles below, is a small village in Pope county, Illinois, at the foot of Hurricane island. There are some iron furna- ces a short distance in the interior.
GOLCONDA, twenty-three miles below, is the county-seat of Pope county, 111. It is very beautifully situated on an elevated plain, and contains a court house, several stores, and a population of about 200.
CUMBERLAND RIVER, fifteen miles below, is one of the largest and most important streams in Kentucky. It empties in on the left, opposite the island'. This is one of the largest rivers of Kentucky. It takes its rise from the Cumberland mountains, and interlocks with the head-waters of Clinch and Kentucky rivers ; flows through the state, westwardly, more than two hundred miles; enters the state of Tennessee, and, meandering one hundred and twenty miles, reaches Nashville, nearly in latitude 35° N. ; from thence, flowing N. W., fol- lowing its meanders two hundred miles, when it joins the Ohio, as above stated. It is navigable for steam boats as far as Nashville, in ordinary good stages of water ; and for flat and keel boats to a much greater distance. Below Nashville the river is deep and narrow, and, for its size, well calculated for navigation. Its banks are but thinly settled.
NASHVILLE, the largest town in Tennessee, and the commercial capital of the state, is pleasantly situated on the south shore of the Cumberland. The site of the town consists of one entire rock, cov- ered, in some places, by a thin soil. It is a place of great trade, and is rapidly rising into importance. Its steam-boat navigation gives it decided advantages over every other place near it. A number of large, first rate steam-boats are owned by citizens of the place, and gives to it a character of enterprise and activity, possessed by few towns of the same size. It is much frequented by the people of the lower country during the sultry months. It has a number of hand- some private mansions, and respectable public buildings, and contains about 15,000 inhabitants. There is a college here of rising reputa- tion ; and Nashville is, after New Orleans, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Louisville, the next largest town in the western country.
SMITHLAND, at the lower side of the mouth of Cumberland river, in Livingston county, Ky., is a place of some importance, en- joying considerable trade with the interior of Tennessee ; being a point for the re-shipment of goods, destined up the Cumberland. It
64 THE OHIO RIVER.
contains two churches, several stores and groceries, a foundry, steam- engine factory, boat yard, and a very extensive tannery. Population, one thousand.
TENNESSEE RIVER, twelve miles below, is the largest branch of the Ohio, and is navigable for large boats more than six hundred miles. It rises in the northwest part of Virginia, and traverses the whole width of East Tennessee, in a south-western direction, and entering the north-east angle of the state of Alabama, the whole width of which it crosses, and turning just at the north-west angle of that state, it pursues a north direction, nearly in a direct line with the western boundary of that state, across the width of Tennessee, and a part of Kentucky, to the Ohio river. Its whole course, from its source to the Ohio, is longer than that river, from Pittsburgh to its mouth, being-, by its meanders, nearly twelve hundred miles. It has been questioned, whether it does not discharge as much water at its entrance into the Ohio, as that river above its entrance. It is suscept- ible of boat navigation for at least one thousand miles ; and steam boats, of the largest size, ascend it as high as Florence, in the state of Alabama, situated on the north bank, at the foot of Muscle Shoals.
FLORENCE, standing at the head of steam-boat navigation on the Tennessee, possesses, as might well be expected, very decided commercial advantages, and is fast rising into importance. It has a great and increasing intercourse with New Orleans. It contains about one thousand five hundred inhabitants, and has a very hand- some court-house and hotel, in city style.
PADUCAH, at the lower side of the mouth of the Tennessee riv er, is the county-seat of McCracken county, Ky. It has a fine range of stores fronting the river, four churches, and a commodious hotel. It is the depot for the vast and growing trade of the Tennessee river. It was laid out in 1827, and named after the celebrated Indian chief, Paducah. Population, two thousand.
BELGRADE, eight miles below, is a small village, in Illinois, con- taining only a few houses.
FORT MASSAC, two miles below, in Illinois. This was the point of rendezvous for the troops sent to intercept the famous expe- dition of Burr. The fort was burnt down, a few years ago, and noth- ing of it is to be seen now, but some rubbish, that marks its former site.
METROPOLIS, one mile below, in Illinois, is a newly laid out town, on a high bank, presenting a very eligible location.
HILLAMAN, seven miles below, is laid out on a low plat of ground. It contains about fifteen or twenty small frame houses, most of which appear to be deserted.
WILKINSONVILLE, nine miles below, in Illinois, is a collection of a few small houses.
Ohio City.iii
66 . THE- OHIO RIVER.
CALEDONIA, ten miles below, in Illinois, is about the size ol Wilkinsonville.
AMERICA, two and one-half miles below, in Illinois, is a small place, with a few dilapidated houses.
TRINITY, five and one-half miles below, at the mouth of Cash river, in Illinois, contains two houses. It is a landing and laying up point for steamboats, in low water.
CAIRO, five and one-half miles below, at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, has acquired considerable celebrity by the re- peated attempts which have been made, to build up a large city on its site. Situated, as it is, at the junction of these two mighty rivers, it, undoubtedly, presents one of the finest points for a city which can be found in the West ; being placed so as to command the immense and incalculable trade of the whole west, north-west, and south. But, there are difficulties to Be surmounted, in the location of the ground, and the surrounding country, which will take an immense amount of capital and labor. That it will ultimately repay all the outlays that may be made, the writer has no doubt. But, that it will be able to do this as soon as other sites, no one will pretend. The banks of the river are here very low, and the surrounding country is still lower. Both are subject to overflow, and from the marshy na- ture of the soil are generated miasms, which render it very unhealthy. But, by a scientific system of embankment, filling up, and draining, all this may be overcome. A levee has been thrown up, which pro- tects it, to a great degree. Every one who looks at it, and reflects what must have been the situation of New Orleans, at an early day, must be convinced that the same kind of labor, bestowed here, will protect it against overflows, &c, equally as well as New Orleans. No one disputes the eligibility of the position ; but the failures, which have heretofore been made, seem to have inspired every one with the idea, that all attempts to build a city here, would end in failures. But those failures have originated, in a great degree, from the man- ner in which the English company (who purchased it, some years ago) undertook to monopolize, not only the land, for the site of the city, but also for miles in the interior. They commenced their opera- tions by throwing a levee around the point, erecting a foundry, sev- eral large buildings, and a number of dwellings, all to be owned by themselves, giving only, to settlers, the right of leasing from them. A number of persons emigrated here, and when the sickly season came on, they suffered severely with it. Having no interest in the soil, they became discouraged, and left, and the place dwindled down, until it had become almost unoccupied. Recently, another company have undertaken to build it up, and not without some hopes of doing something. If sufficient inducements are held out to persons to re- move and remain there, it may yet, under a wise system of improve- ment, approximate, in some degree, to the ideas of its first projec- tors. It now contains only a few straggling houses, the remnants of the enterprise of its former proprietors. These, however, are now being tenanted by a somewhat enterprising set of inhabitants. A very
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
67
good newspaper has been recently started here. The population is about one hundred and fifty.
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
The Mississippi is the largest and most magnificent river in the United States. Its source is in a small lake, called Itasca, situated in a region of swamps and Avild rice lakes, fifteen hundred feet above the Gulf of Mexico, near the 48° of N. latitude, audit flows into the Gulf of Mexico, in 29° N. latitude. It is formed of many small branches ; but, before it traverses a great distance, becomes a broad stream, moving a wide expanse of waters, with a' current scarcely perceptible — sometimes along a marshy bed — through interminable swamps ; at others, over a while sand bottom, with its waters trans- parent, and at others, "it is compressed to a narrow and rapid cur- rent, between ancient and hoary limestone bluffs. A great number of streams, rising in the same plateau, and interlocking with the wa- ters of Red River, and other streams of Lake Winnipeg, unite to form the St. Peters and Mississippi." The following are among the most •■onsiderable of its tributaries: Rapid, St. Croix, Cannon River, Buf- falo Bluff, Black, Root, Upper Ioway, Yellow, Bad Axe, Wiscon- sin (this last river comes in from the east, near Prairie du Chien. It has a boatable course of more than two hundred miles, and inter- locks, by a short portage, with Fox river, which empties into Green Bay. It is the liquid highway of passage for the Canadian traders, trappers, and savages, from Mackinaw, and the lakes, to the Missis- sippi), Turkey river, La Mine, Fever river, Tete de Mort, Wipisipi- nacon, Little Loutour, Rock river, loway, Des Moines (this river is one of the largest tributaries above the Missouri, and has a boat- able course of three hundred miles), Waconda, Fabian, Justioni, Oahaka, or Salt river, Bceuf of Cuivre, Dardenne, Illinois (a noble, broad, and deep stream, having a course of about four hundred miles, and boatable almost the whole distance), Missouri, Maramec, Kaskas- kia, Big Muddy, Ohio, Wolf, St. Francis, White river, Arkansas, Ya- zoo, Red river, and Bayou Sara.* Eleven hundred miles below its source, and seven hundred and seventy-one above St. Louis, are the Falls of St. Anthony. Here the river is about six hundred yards wide, and is precipitated over a ledge of limestone, seventeen feet high. The scenery around the falls is grand and imposing, and af- fords a fine treat to visitors, many of whom travel here every year, to witness this sublime and beautiful spot. Below this point, the riv- er is bounded by limestone bluffs, from one hundred to four hundred feet high, and first begins to exhibit islands. Its current is broke by the Rapids, at the mouth of the Rock river and Des Moines, which partially obstruct navigation, for a portion of the summer. The scenery along the Upper, or Rock River Rapids, is most beautiful.
* Flint's Geography.
68 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
On the western side, the land rises in gentle slopes, which are ter- minated in the distance by a beautiful chain of hills. On the oppo- site side, a broad, flat plain, of more than a mile in width, and sev- eral miles in length, presents itself. There is a small village of the Sacs and Fox Indians, on this plain. The celebrated Black Hawk War originated in the determination of these Indians to maintain possession of this beautiful tract of country. " Below the rapids, the river assumes its medial width and character from that point to the entrance of the Missouri. It is a still more beautiful river than the Ohio ; somewhat gentler in its current — a third wider, with broad, clean sand-bars, except in time of high waters, when they are all covered. At every little distance, there are islands, sometimes a num- ber of them parallel, and broadening the stream to a great width. These islands, are, many of them, large, and have, in the summer season, an aspect of beauty, as they swell gently from the the clear stream, a vigor and grandeur of vegetation, which contribute much to the magnificence of the river."
" Where it receives the Missouri, it is a mile and a half wide. The Missouri, itself, enters with a mouth not more than half a mile wide. The united streams below have thence, to the mouth of the Ohio, a medial width of little more than half a mile. This mighty tributary seems rather to diminish, than increase its width ; but it perceptibly alters its depth, its mass of waters, and, what is to be regretted, whol- ly changes its character. It is no longer the gentle, placid stream, with smooth shores, and clean sand bars ; but has a furious and boil- ing current, a turbid and dangerous mass of sweeping waters, jagged and dilapidated shores, and, wherever its waters have receded, depos- its of mud. It remains a sublime object of contemplation ; but its character of calm magnificence, that so delighted the eye above, is seen no more."* The surface of the river is covered with huge' boils or swells, which render it a matter of considerable difficulty, in some places, to navigate a boat. " In its course, accidental circumstances shift the impetus of its current, and propel it upon the point of an island, bend, or sand-bar. In these instances, it tears up the island, removes the sand-bars, and sweeps away the tender, alluvial soil of the bends, with all their trees, and deposits the spoils in another place. At the season of high waters, nothing is more familiar to the ears of the people on the river, than the deep crash of a landslip, in which larger or smaller masses of the soil on the banks, with all the trees, are plunged into the stream. Such is its character, from the Missou- ri to the Balize — a wild, furious, whirling river, never navigated safely, except with great danger.
"No person who descends this riverfor the first time, receives clear and adequate ideas of its grandeur, and the amount of water which it carries. If it be in the spring, when the river below the mouth of the Ohio is generally over its banks, although the sheet of water that is making its way to the gulf, is, perhaps, thirty miles wide, yet, find- ing its way through deep forests and swamps, that conceal all from the eye, no expanse of water is seen, but the width, that is curved
♦Fliut'8 Geography.
MISSISSIPPI. No. 1.
Cahokia
nam\\.
70 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
out between the outline of woods on either bank ; and it seldom ex- ceeds, and oftener falls short of a mile. But when he sees, in de- scending from' the falls of St. Anthony, that it swallows up one river after another, with months as wide as itself, without affecting its width at all — when he sees it receiving in succession the mighty Mis- souri, the broad Ohio, St. Francis, White, Arkansas, and Red rivers, all of them of great depth, length, and volume of water — when he sees this mighty river absorbing them all, and retaining a volume, apparently unchanged, he begins to estimate rightly the increasing depth of current, that must roll on in its deep channel to the sea. Carried out of the Balize, and sailing with a good breeze for hours,, he sees nothing on any side but the white and turbid waters of the Mississippi, long after he is out of sight of land.
'•'Between the mouth of the Ohio and St. Louis, on the west side of the river, the bluffs are generally near it, seldom diverging from it more than two miles. They are for the most part, perpendicular mass- es of limestone ; sometimes shooting up into towers and pinnacles, presenting, as Mr. Jefferson well observed, at a distance, the aspect of the battlements and towers of an ancient city. Sometimes the river sweeps the base of these perpendicular bluffs, as happens at the Cor- nice rocks, and at the cliffs above St. Genevieve. They rise here, be- tween two and three hundred feet above the level of the river. There are many imposing spectacles of this sort near the western bank of the Mississippi, in this distance. We may mention among them, that gigantic mass of rocks, forming a singular island in the river, called the ' Grand Tower,' and the shot tower at Herculaneum.
" From the sources of the river to the mouth of the Missouri, the annual flood ordinarily commences in March, and does not subside until the last of May, and its medial height is fifteen feet. At the lowest stages, four feet of water may be found from the rapids of Des Moines to the mouth of the Missouri. Between that point and the mouth of the Ohio, there are six feet in the channel of the shallow- est places at low water; and the annual inundation may be estima- ted at twenty-five feet. Between the mouth of the Ohio and the St. Francis, there are various shoal places, where pilots are often perplex- ed to find a sufficient depth of water, when the river is low. Below that point, there is no difficulty for vessels of any draught, except to find the right channel. Below the mouth of the Ohio, the medial flood is fifty feet ; the highest, sixty. Above Natchez, the flood be- gins to decline. At Baton Rouge, it seldom exceeds thirty feet ; and at New Orleans, twelve. Some have supposed this gradual diminu- tion of the flood to result from the draining of the numerous efflux- es of the river, that convey away such considerable portions of its waters, by separate channels to the sea. To this should be added, no doubt, the check, which the river at this distance begins to feel from the re-action of the sea, where this mighty mass of descending waters finds its level." *
The banks of the river, from Cairo down, are Clothed, in many in- stances, with a rich verdure of trees, down to the jvater's edge, inter-
* Flint's Geography.
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 71
spersed here and there with towns and fine plantations. About five hundred miles below, commences the great cotton growing region, and, below the mouth of Red river, the sugar plantations. From thence to New Orleans, the banks of the river are lined with a suc- cession of fine plantations, with fine dwellings, delightfully surround- ed with shrubbery. From Columbia, Arkansas, the forest of cotton and other trees presents a most singular appearance, being, in many places, covered with a peculiar kind of moss, which depends from the branches, in long, thick masses, and give an almost funereal aspect to them. It is the moss commonly used, when manufactured, for mat- tresses, &LC.
A traveler, in some well written sketches, very truthfully remarks, that, "No person can pass down the Mississippi, and view the im- mense bodies of uncultivated lands, lying contiguous to its banks, without reflecting on the great changes which time will produce. In a century, or two at the most, the banks of the river will present continuous lines of cultivated plantations, similar to those on the coast. The lands are as rich as nature can make them, being all of alluvial formation ; and the soil of such a depth, that there is no dan- ger of its ever being exhausted. When we read of the myriads of people, who formerly existed in the valley of the Nile, and compare the capabilities of the Mississippi valley with it, we can comprehend the great destiny, awaiting only the development of time, in store for this already far-famed region."
GALENA, the county-seat of Jo Daviess county, III., and the prin- cipal town in the lead region, is situated on Fever river, about nine miles from the Mississippi, and about four hundred and thirty above St. Louis. It derives its great importance from the lead business, which is here extensively carried on. Immense quantities of lead are found in the north-western part of Illinois and Wisconsin, extend- ing from the Wisconsin river to Rock river, on both sides of the Mis- sissippi. The French and Indians had been accustomed, for a num- ber of years previously, to obtain small quantities of the ore, but the process of separating the metals was not carried on regularly until 1822. From that time, up to the end of 1835, seventy millions, four hundred and twenty thousand, three hundred and fifty seven pound* of lead have been made here. Thirteen million pounds have been smelted in one year. Since then, the business has been rapidly in- creasing, and new mines opened. The supply is supposed to be al- most inexhaustible. Galena is pleasantly located on Fever river, which is navigable to it, in all seasons, for steamboats of any size. It was first settled in 1826, and was then an outpost in the wilder- ness. An immense amount of business is transacted here, as it is a place of import and export for the products of a very extensive and fertile country. There are several churches, two printing-offices, sev- eral extensive manufactories, including mills (flouring and saw mills), sheet lead manufactories, &c. In 1846, $2,225,000 worth of lead was exported from this place. The population is about five thousand.
From Galena to St. Louis there are a number of places, a few
72 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
only of which we can give particular descriptions. The names and distances of them will, however, be given,
BELLEVIEW, seven miles below, in Iowa.
SAVANNAH, twenty miles below, in Carroll county, Illinois.
CHARLESTOWN, one mile below, in Iowa.
VAN BUREN, fifteen miles below, in Carroll county, 111.
ALBANY, eight miles below, in Whiteside county, 111., was laid out in 1837, and has improved rapidly, since. The site of the town and surrounding country is highly beautiful.
CAMANCHE, Iowa, two miles below.
PARKHURST, twenty miles below.
MILAN, fifteen miles below, in Rock Island county, 111.
ROCK ISLAND, five miles below, in the same county, is a large island in the Mississippi, three miles long, and about one and a-half miles wide, with a limestone rock for its base. On it stands Fort Armstrong, a strong and very neat garrison of the United States. On two sides, the rock is twenty feet in perpendicular height above the river, and forms the foundation of the fort. The southern point of the island is elevated about forty feet above the ordinary level of the river.
ROCK ISLAND CITY and STEPHENSPORT are situated at the junction of Rock river with the Mississippi. Rock Island City has been laid out on an extensive plan, and embraces in it Stephens- port, the county-seat of Rock Island county. It is rapidly increasing, and promises to become a place of considerable importance. The po- sition of the city is one of the best on the Upper Mississippi, and the country surrounding it affords fine agricultural facilities ; while the timber, limestone, and coal in its vicinity are not only sufficient for home purposes, but considerable quantities of wood and coal are transported to other points. Rock river, which enters a short distance below, may be easily rendered navigable, and affords abundant water power for machinery.
The population of Rock Island City is now about two thousand.
DAVENPORT, on the opposite side of the river, a little above, is the county-seat of Scott county, Iowa. It is a very flourishing place, situated on a beautifully elevated plain. A large amount of business is transacted here, in shipping off the products of the rich and beau- tiful country in the interior, and supplying the inhabitants with the productions of other regions. Davenport is destined to become one of the most populous, as it is one of the handsomest places, on the Upper Mississippi. A college, under the supervision of the Presbyte- rians, is in course of erection. The population is one thousand.
ROCKINGHAM, Iowa, five miles below.
BUFFALO, seven miles below, in Iowa.
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 73
BLOOMINGTON, twenty miles below, is the county-seat of Mus- catine county, Iowa. It is one of the largest places in the state, in point of population, as well as business. The population is about one thousand eight hundred.
NEW BOSTON, twenty-seven miles below, is the county-seat of Mercer county, Illinois. It has a good landing, and is surrounded by a fertile country.
IOWA RIVER, a considerable tributary of the Mississippi, enters a short distance below New Boston. On it is located
IOWA CITY, the capital of the state. It is a rapidly improving place, surrounded by a beautiful and fertile section of country. It contains a state house, a college, an academy, a United States' land office, and several churches. Population, about one thousand five hundred.
OQJJAWKA, twenty miles below, is the principal depot for freights, between the Des Moines and Rock River Rapids. It was laid out about fourteen years ago, when the site on which it stands was pur- chased for two hundred dollars. It was sold some two years after, to an enterprising land speculator, for $24,000, who, by a sale of only a small part of his purchase, realized the full amount of the pur- chase money.
BURLINGTON, fifteen miles below, is the county-seat of Des Moines county, Iowa, and was the former capital of the state. It was removed to Iowa City, in 1839. Burlington is finely situated, and enjoys considerable trade. It is fast improving.
FORT MADISON, twenty-three miles below, is the county-seat of Lee county, Iowa. It is also thriving rapidly, and now contains a population of, from one thousand two hundred to one thousand five hundred. The penitentiary of the state is located here.
MONTROSE, nine miles below, in Iowa.
NAUVOO, opposite, in Hancock county, 111., is the site of the cel- ebrated Mormon city, which was laid out about 1840, by Joseph Smith and his followers. It is situated on a handsome plain, on an elevated bank, extending for some distance from the river. The city was laid out on a very extensive plan, and intended to be the great city, to which all should look, as the Jews do toward Jerusalem. A great many houses were erected, some of them on a very magnif- icent scale, and the city was fast being filled with the adherents of that sect, from all parts of the country. A temple was also in course of erection, which, for vastness of dimensions and splendor of de- sign, was intended to be without a rival in the Union. But, difficul- ties having arisen among the members of the community, and between them and the citizens of the surrounding country, Joseph Smith, the Lieutenant General of the Nauvoo Legion, and High Priest, and Hi- ram, his brother, were arrested, and thrown into prison, in Carthage.
74 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
the county-seat, where they were, on the 27th of June, 1844, murder ed, by an armed mob, in disguise, who overpowered the guard, sta- tioned at the jail. New troubles subsequently arising, the Mormons were expelled from the state. Many of them returned to their for- mer homes, in the states, reduced in circumstances, and enfeebled by toil and sickness ; but a large body banded together, and started to- ward Oregon, with the intention of there raising up a city, which should fill the place of that one, which had proved so disastrous to them. Nauvoo has since declined rapidly. A religious denomination were about making a contract for the purchase of the Temple, for a college, but it was destroyed in October, 1848, by an incendiary, who fired it in the cupola, and it is now a heap of ruins.
NASHVILLE, four miles below, in Lee county, Iowa.
KEOKUCK, eight miles below, in the same county, is a place of much importance as a business point, population two thousand one nundred and fourteen.
WARSAW, four miles below, in Hancock county, 111., opposite the mouth of the Des Moines river, is destined to attain a high rank among the towns of the West. The situation is a very eligible one, and the place is rapidly improving.
THE DESMOINES RIVER, which here enters on the opposite side, forms, for a short distance, the boundary line between Iowa and Missouri.
TULLY, eighteen miles below, in Missouri. LA GRANGE, nine miles below.
QJJINCY, twelve miles below, is the county-seat of Adams county, III. It is situated on a beautiful elevation, one hundred and twenty- five feet above the limestone-bound shore of the Mississippi, and commands a fine view of* the river, for five or six miles in each direc- tion. It contains an enterprising and intelligent population, and is destined to become an extensive and flourishing place. There are a large number of stores, several fine churches, a United States' land office, and several mills and manufactories. The public square is large, and on the east side of it there is a fine court house, erected at a cost of twenty thousand dollars. The country in its vicinity, is a beautifully rolling and rich prairie, and one of the finest agricultural regions in the state. Large quantities of produce are annually ship- ped from here, by steamboats and other craft, which can navigate the river, from this place down, at any season of the year. The present population of Q,uincy, is five thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
MARION CITY, seven miles below, in Marion county, Missouri, is the shipping port for Palmyra, the county-seat, in the interior. The soil of this county is very rich, and abounds in fine timber, bitu- minous coal, salt springs, and lead.
HANNIBAL, twelve miles below, in the same county, is a place of large and growing trade, population two thousand three hundred and twenty-nine.
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 75
SAVERTON, eight miles below, in Ralls county, Missouri. New- London is the county-seat.
LOUISIANA, twenty miles below, in Pike count\r, Missouri. Bowl- ing Green is the county-seat.
CLARKSV1LLE, twelve miles below, in the same county.
HAMBURGH, thirteen miles below, in Calhoun, county, Illinois. Guilford is the county-seat.
ILLINOIS RIVER, forty-two miles below, is the most considera- ble stream in Illinois, after the Mississippi. It is navigable for steam- boats to Utica, two hundred and ten miles from its mouth. The country along its banks is very rich and productive, and the com- merce on it is very extensive, a number of steamboats being constant- ly engaged in its trade. On the banks of this river, the French em- igrants from Canada settled themselves, and here was the scenery on which they founded their extravagant panegyrics upon the west- ern country.
GRAFTON, two miles below, in Greene county, Illinois, is a thriv- ing place, situated on an elevated strip of land, under the bluffs, and has a good steamboat landing. It contains a population of about one thousand.
ALTON, eighteen miles below, in Madison county, Illinois, was laid out in 18 IS. Up to the year 1832, it contained only a few houses and a steam mill. In that year, the Penitentiary of the state was erected here. After that, it commenced improving rapidly, and many very fine building! were erected. It is finely laid out in wide, beauti- ful streets, and contains several fine churches, a large number of stores, some of which do a very extensive business. This city is surround- ed, for several miles in extent, with one of the finest bodies of tim- ber in the stale, from which vast quantities of lumber may be pro- duced. Bituminous coal exists in great abundance, at only a short distance from the town. Inexhaustible beds of limestone, for build- ing purposes, and easily quarried, are within its precincts. A species of freestone, easily dressed, and used for monuments and architect- ural purposes, and that peculiar species of lime, used for water ce- ment, are found in great abundance, in the vicinity. The corporate bounds extend two miles along the river, and half-a-mile back. The city plat is laid out, by the proprietors, upon a liberal scale. There are five squares reserved for public purposes, and a large reservation is made on the river for a public landing and promenade. For several years its progress was truly astonishing. No place in the west held out such inducements for mechanics and all classes. In 1837, a riot broke out here, occasioned by the Rev. Mr. Lovejoy attempting to publish an abolition newspaper. The store in which the press was placed, was attacked at night, by a large body of armed men. It was de- fended by the parlies within the store. The conflict lasted from an hour and a half to two hours, both parties firing on each other, the bells of the town ringing, and the streets crowded. In the conflict,
76 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
Mr. Lovejoy fell, pierced with five balls, and died in a few mo- ments.
UPPER ALTON is situated two miles and a half in the interior, and is the seat of Shurtliff college.
MISSOURI RIVER, five miles below. Mr. Flint, in his history of the west, gives the following description of this river, which is, probably, the best that has ever been written :
" This is by far the greatest tributary of the Mississippi, bringing down more water than the Upper Mississippi itself. In fact, it is a longer river than the Mississippi, from its furthest source to the Mex- ican Gulf. There are many circumstances which render it one of the most interesting of rivers ; and it is clearly the longest tributary stream on the globe. Many have thought, that, from its length, the amount of its waters, and the circumstance of its communicating its own character, in every respect, to the Mississippi below the junction, that it ought to have been considered the main river, and to have con- tinued to bear its own name to the sea. In opposition to this claim, we remark, that the valley of the Missouri seems, in the grand scale of conformation, to be secondary to that of the Mississippi. The Missouri has not the general direction of that river, which it joins nearly at right angles. The valley of the Mississippi is wider than that of the Missouri, as is also the river broader than the other. The course of the river, and the direction of the valley, are the same, above and below the junction of the Missouri. From these, and many other considerations, the ' father of waters ' seems fairly entitled to the name which he has so long borne.
"Its prodigious length of course, its uncommon turbidness, its im- petuous and wild character, and the singular country through which it runs, impart to this river a natural grandeur, belonging to the sub- lime. We have never crossed it without experiencing a feeling of that sort; nor without a stretch, almost laborious in the attempt to trace it in thought, along its immense distances, and through its dis- tant region and countries, to the lonely and stupendous mountains from which it springs.
" It rises in the Rocky Mountains, nearly in the same parallel with the Mississippi. The most authentic information we have yet had of the sources of this mighty river, is from its first intrepid Ameri- can discoverers, Lewis and Clark. What may properly be called the Missouri, seems to be formed by three considerable branches, which unite not far from the basis of the principal ranges of the mountains. To the northern, they gave the name of Jefferson ; to the middle, Gallatin ; to the southern, Madison. Each of these branches fork again into a number of small mountain streams. It is but a short distance from some of these to the head-waters of the Columbia, on the other side of the mountains. A person may drink from the spring sources of each, without traveling more than a mile. After this junc- tion, the river continues a considerable distance to be still a foaming mountain torrent. It then spreads into a broad and comparatively gentle stream, full of islands. Precipitous peaks of blackish rock frown above the river in perpendicular elevations of one thousand
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 77
feet. The mountains, whose bases it sweeps, are covered with tere- binthines, such as pines, cedars, and firs ; and mountain sheep are seen bounding on their summits, where they are apparently inacces- sible. In this distance, the mountains have an aspect of inexpressi- ble loneliness and grandeur.
" The river then becomes almost a continued cataract, for a distance of about seventeen miles. In this distance, its perpendicular descent is three hundred and sixty-two feet. The first fall is ninety-eight feet ; the second, nineteen ; the third, forty-seven ; the fourth, twenty- six. It continues rapid for a long distance beyond. Not far below these falls, enters Maria's river from the north. This is a very con- siderable stream. Still further down, on the opposite side, enter Dear- born and Fancy, each about one hundred and fifty yards wide ; Ma- noles, one hundred ; Big Horn, one hundred ; Muscle-shell, one hun- dred ; Big Dry, four hundred ; Dry, one hundred ; Porcupine, one hundred and twelve — all these enter from the south side. Below these, enter the Roche Jaime, or Yellow Stone, probably the largest tributary of the Missouri. It rises in the same range of mountains with the main river, and has many points of resemblance to it. It enters from the south, by a mouth eight hundred and fifty yards wide. It is a broad, deep, and sweeping river; and at its junction, appears the largest of the two. Its course is commonly calculated at one thousand six hundred miles. But the sizes and lengths of all these tributaries are probably overrated. Its shores, for a long distance above its entrance, are heavily timbered, and its bottoms wide, and of the finest soil. Its entrance is deemed to be one thousand eight hun- dred and eighty miles above the mouth of the Missouri; and it was selected by government as an eligible situation for a military post, and an extensive settlement. White bears, elk, and mountain sheep, are the principal animals seen along this part of the river.
"At the point of junction with the Yellow Stone, the Missouri has wide and fine bottoms. Unfortunately, its banks are, for the most part, destitute of timber ; and this, for a long series of years, will pre- vent its capacity for habitancy. White-earth river, from the north, is a small stream. Goose river, three hundred yards wide, comes in from the south side. Little Missouri is shallow and rapid, and is about one hundred and thirty yards wide. Knife river comes in from the south, just above the Mandan villages. Cannon-ball river enters from the south side, and is one hundred and forty yards wide. Win- nipenhu, south side. Serwarsena, south side. Chienne is represent- ed to be boatable nearly 800 miles, and enters from the south side, by a mouth four hundred yards wide. Tyber's river. White river, boatable six hundred miles, south side, is a very beautiful stream, and has a mouth three hundred yards wide. Honcas, south side. Q.ui- Courre, a fine stream, with a short course, south side. Riviere a Ja- que, a noted resort for traders and trappers. White Stone, Big Sioux, Floyd's river. La Platte enters from the south, and has a longer course than any other river of the Missouri. It rises in the same ranges of mountains with the parent stream, and, measured by its meanders, is supposed to have a course of 2000 miles before it joins that river. It is nearly a mile in width at its entrance ; but is, as its
78 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
name imports, very shallow, and is not boatable except at its highest Hoods. Nodowa, north side. Little Platte, north side. Kansas is a very large tributary from the south, and has a course of about one thousand two hundred miles, and is boatable for most of the distance. Blue Water, and two or three small streams below, come in on the south side. Grand river is a large, long, and deep stream, boatable for a great distance, and enters on the north side. The two Chara- tons come in on the same side. The La Mine enters on the south side. Bonne Femme and Manitou, enter on the north side, and Salt river on the south.
" The Osage, which enters on the south side, is a large and very im- portant stream of the Missouri, boatable six hundred miles, and inter- locking with the waters of the Arkansas. Three or four inconsider- able streams enter on the opposite side, as Miry, Otter, and Cedar rivers. On the south side enters the Gasconade, boatable for sixty- six miles, and is important from having on its banks extensive pine forests, from which the great supply of plank and timber of that kind is brought to St. Charles and St. Louis. On the south side, below the Gasconade, are a number of inconsiderable rivers ; as Buffalo, St. John's, Wood river, Bonhomme, &c : and on the other side, the Charette, Femme Osage, and one or two small branches, before it pre- cipitates itself into the Mississippi.
"The bottoms of this river have a character very distinguishable from those of the upper Mississippi. They are higher, not so wet, more sandy, with trees which are not so large, but taller and straight- er. Its alluvions are something narrower; that is to say, having for the first five hundred miles a medial width of something more than four miles. Its bluffs, like those of the other river, are generally lime- stone, but not so perpendicular, and have more tendency to run into the mamelle form. The bottoms abound with deer, turkeys, and small game. The river seldom overflows any part of its banks in this distance. It is little inclined to be swampy. There are much fewer lakes, bayous, and small ponds, than along the Mississippi. Prairies are scarcely seen on the banks of the river, within the dis- tance of the first four hundred miles of its course. It is heavily tim- bered ; and yet, from the softness of the wood, easily cleared. The water, though uncommonly turbid with a whitish earth, which it holds in suspension, soon and easily settles, and is then remarkably pure, pleasant and healthy water. The river is so rapid and sweeping in its course, and its bed is composed of such masses of sand, that it is continually shifting its sand bars. A chart of the river as it runs this year, gives little ground for calculation in navigating it the next. It has numerous islands, and generally near them is the most difficult to be stemmed. Still more than the Mississippi below its mouth, it tears up in one place and deposits in another, and makes more fre- quent and powerful changes in its channel than any other western river.
"Its bottoms are considerably settled for a distance of four hundred miles above its mouth. That of Charaton is the highest compact settlement. But the largest and most populous settlement in the State, is that called Boone's Lick. Indeed, there are American set-
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 79
tiers here and there, on the bottoms, above the Platte, and far beyond the limits of the state of Missouri. Above the Platte, the open and prairie character of the country begins to develop. The prairies come quite into the banks of the river, and stretch from it indefinitely, in naked grass plains, where the traveler may wander for days with- out seeing either wood or water. The 'Council Bluffs' afe an im- portant military station, about six hundred miles up the Missouri. Beyond this point, commences a country of great interest and gran- deur in many respects, and denominated, by way of eminence, the Up- per Missouri. The country is composed of vast and almost bound- less grass plains, through which stretch the Platte, the Yellow Stone, and the other rivers of this ocean of grass. The savages of this region have a peculiar physiognomy and mode of life. It is a country where commence new tribes of plants. It is the home of builalos, elk, white bears, antelopes, and mountain sheep. Sometimes the river washes the bases of the dark hills of a friable and crumbling soil. Here are found, as Lewis and Clarke and other respectable travelers relate, large and singular petrifactions, both animal and vegetable. On the top of one of these hills they found the petrified skeleton of a huge fish, forty-five feet in length. The herds of the gregarious animals, particularly the burfalos, are innumerable. Such is the general character of the country, until we come in contact with the spurs of the Rocky Mountains.
"As far as the limits of the State, this river is capable of support- ing a dense population, for a considerable distance from its banks. Above those limits it is generally too destitute of wood to become habitable by any other people than hunters and shepherds. All the great tributaries of this river are copies, more or less exact, of the pa- rent stream. One general remark applies to the whole country. The rivers have a narrow margin of fertility. The country, as it recedes from the river, becomes more and more sterile, sandy, and destitute of water, until it approximates in character toward the sandy des- erts of Arabia.
:' The Osage, as we have mentioned, is one of the principal tribu- taries of the Missouri in this state. It comes in on the south side of the Missouri, one hundred and thirty miles above its junction with the Mississippi. At its mouth, it is nearly four hundred yards wide. Its general course is from south to north ; and the best cotton coun- try in the State of Missouri is on the head waters of this river. Its principal branches are. Mary's, Big Bone, Yungar, Potato, and Grand Fork rivers. Yungar is nearly as large as the parent stream, and is navigable for small craft, except at its grand cascade, for nearly an hundred miles. The cascade is a great cataract of ninety feet fall. When the river is full, the roar is heard far through the desert. It is a fine country through which the river runs."
The entire length of the Missouri, from its source until it enters the Mississippi, is computed to be about two thousand two hundred and eighty-five miles. It is navigable to the foot of the great falls, nearly three thousand eight hundred miles from the sea, and steam-boats have ascended it two thousand two hundred miles.
80 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
JEFFERSON CITY, the capital of Missouri, is situated on this river, one hundred and thirty-five miles from its mouth.
ST. LOUIS, seventeen miles below, was selected by Mr. Laclede (the manager for a company of merchants, who had obtained the mo- nopoly of the Indian fur trade, on the Mississippi and Missouri riv- ers) as a depot for their merchandise. Mr. Laclede, after examining numerous points on the Mississippi, foresaw and predicted the future importance of the town, to which he gave the name of St. Louis, and accordingly, in December, 1763, he had a portion of the ground, on which it stands, cleared, and returned to Fort Chartres, to make pre- parations for the establishment of his new colony. He was accom- panied in his visit by two young Creoles of New Orleans, Augustus and Pierre Chouteau, whom he, in the February following, dispatch- ed with men and materials to complete the settlement. During the summer of 1764, many of the French from the vicinity of Fort Char- ties, removed to St. Louis. This emigration was soon checked by the cession of that territory to the King of Spain. It was not, how- ever, until 1770 that Spain obtained possession of St. Louis. In 1771, it contained one hundred and twenty houses, mostly of stone, large and commodious, and the population about eight hundred, ex- clusive of one hundred and fifty negroes ; the whites being mostly French. Numerous mounds, the work of an unknown race of peo- ple, were to be seen on the site of the town, and in its vicinity.
In 1780, the garrison consisting of only fifty or sixty men, was at- tacked by a large body of Indians, numbering from nine to fifteen hundred. " The women and children who could not take part in the defense, took shelter in the house of Auguste Chouteau, whilst all those, both men and women, who were within the palisades, commenc- ed so vigorous a resistance, that the enemy was forced to retreat. But these, with characteristic ferocity, threw themselves upon those of the inhabitants, who, engaged in the cultivation of their fields, had not time to reach the palisades, and it is said that sixty were killed and thirteen were made prisoners. The year this attack took place is call- ed by the French, " V 'Annee du Grand Coup — the year of the great blow."
After this, the inhabitants finding their garrison insufficient to protect them, sent Mr. A. Chouteau to New Orleans for assistance. Cruzat was made commander of St. Louis, and a wooden fort erected on the most elevated spot within the city, upon which several heavy pieces of ordnance were mounted, and still later, four stone turrets were ad- ded, from which cross fires could be kept up. No traces of this for- tification are now to be seen. " The present old market-place of St. Louis is the spot where the first tents and log cabins were pitched, of this now important city of the west. In 1810, the population was one thousand four hundred ; in 1830, six thousand six hundred and ninety-four; in 1840, sixteen thousand; and in 1848, about forty thousand. Before 1814, but few American houses were built."
"Since the Americans began to take the lead in St. Louis, and in- troduced our laws and enterprise, a new impulse has been given to its improvement, commerce, and prosperity. The situation of the city
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVETv. 81
is very beautiful. It stands on a kind of second bottom, that rises gently from the river to a considerable eminence. Having surmount- ed this bank, ail extensive plain opens to view. In the immediate vi- cinity of the city, this plain is covered with bushes and shrub oaks. Beyond, is an extensive belt of grassy plain or naked prairie. The timber for several miles has been cut away for fuel. The eye repo- ses, in the spring and summer months, with pleasure upon this sweep of verdure, bounded on the verge of the horizon with forests, and al- so upon the level bottom and noble forests on the opposite shore o? the river. The city has extended itself along the hill; and some o: the best houses are built on that pleasant elevation. The number of the Americans now predominates over that of the French : hut the population is made up of emigrants from all parts of the world. There is no town in the western country more favorably situated, a? the seat of an immense trade. It is nearly in the center of the Mis- sissippi valley, commanding the trade of the Missouri, the upper Mis- sissippi, and the Illinois, with the vast and almost boundless country watered by these gigantic streams. The fur trade of this immense country already centers here. It is the depot of the numberless lead mines in this region of country, and all the produce and merchandize of the country above it. It has this obvious advantage over any town on the Ohio, that steam-boats can run between here and New Orleans at the lowest stage of water. A great number of keel boats, and riv- er craft of all descriptions, bound to all points of the boatable waters of the Mississippi, are seen at all seasons of the year, lying in the harbor. Miners, trappers, hunters, adventurers, emigrants, and peo- ple of all character and languages, meet here, and disperse in pursuit of their various objects, in every direction, some even beyond the re- motest points of civilization."
It now contains thirty-five churches, five public schools, two med- ical colleges, one literary do., o.ie theological do., one bank, sic. The exports are estimated to amount to fifty million of dollars per annum.
The number of steam-boats engaged in the trade of St. Lpuis, is two hundred and sixty, which made during the year 1817, three thousand two hundred and sixty-six trips.
Such is a brief account of St. Louis as it ftas been, and is now. What it will be, when the ever-active and untiring energy of our peo- ple shall have developed the rich resources of that almost boundless region of fertile country, which surrounds it, cannot be much of a matter of speculation. This city must be one of the largest and wealthiest inland cities on this continent.
CAHOKIA, three and one-half miles below, in St. Clair county, 111., is one of the oldest settlements in the state. It was occupied by the Caoquias, a tribe of the Illinois Indians, long before the discov- ery of the Mississippi. The French settled on it shortly after La Salle descended the Mississippi, probably about the year 1683. In L766, it comained forty families, and now contains about fifty. The majority of the houses are built of pickets, one story high, having piazzas on each side, and, being white-washed, present a pleasant ap- pearance. The inhabitants are principally French, liy aa act of '3
82 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
Congress, passed in 17SS, a grant of four hundred acres of land, ad- joining the village, was made to each family. The situation is some- what elevated, but damp, and unhealthy, and the Americans seldom pass a season in it without suffering from the miasma of the sur- rounding ponds. Considerable quantities of coal are found near it.
CARONDALET, formerly called VIDE POCHE (empty pocket), four miles below, is a small village, principally occupied by French, who supply vegetables for the St. Louis market. It was settled in 1767.
JEFFERSON BARRACKS, three miles below, in Missouri.
HARRISON, twenty-one miles below, is a small village, in Mon- roe county, 111.
HERCULANEUM, one mile below, in Jefferson county, Missouri, is a flourishing town, and fast rising in importance. There are sev- eral large shot towers and factories in its vicinity. It is one of the principal ports of the lead district.
FORT CHARTRES, nineteen miles below, in Randolph county, HI., " was originally built by the French, in 1720, to defend them- selves against the Spaniards, who were then in possession of the country on the Mississippi. It was rebuilt in 1756." By the treaty of Fontainbleau, the 3d of November, 1762, between Great Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal, the regions east of the Mississippi, inclu- ding all the various towns on the north-west, were given up to Great Britain, and in 1765, Capt. Sterling, in the name of the majesty of Eng- land, took possession of Fort Chartres, and promulgated a proclamation, promising freedom of religious worship to the western Catholics, a tight to leave the country, if they wished, or remain, with the privi- leges of Englishmen. " The circumstances, character, form, and his- tory of this fort, are interesting, as they are intimately connected with the history of the country. It was once a formidable piece of ma- sonry, the materials of which were brought three or four miles from the bluffs. It was, originally, an irregular quadrangle, the exterior aides of which were four hundred and ninety feet in circumference. Within the walls were the commandant's and commissary's houses, a magazine for stores, barracks, powder magazines, bake house, guard liouse, and prison. It is now a heap of ruins. A slough from the Mississippi undermined the wall on one side, in 1772. Over the whole fort is a considerable growth of trees, and most of its walls and buildings have fallen down, and lie in one promiscuous ruin."
ST. GENEVIEVE, eleven miles below, is the county-seat of Gen- evieve county, Missouri. It is handsomely situated on a healthy spot, and is a place of considerable business, particularly in the article of lead, considerable quantities of which, as well as iron and copper, ex- ist in the neighborhood. It contains a population of about two thou- sand. It was settled by the French, at a very early day, and, in 1771, contained a population of four hundred and sixty, besides blacks.
84 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
KASKASKIA RIVER, fourteen miles below, is the southern ter- mination of the Great American Bottom, which extends northwardly on the river, for eighty miles. In this bottom, the first French set- tlements were made. Seven miles from the mouth of the Kaskaskia river, is the town of Kaskaskia, the county-seat of Randolph county, Illinois. Kaskaskia was founded shortly after the visit of La Salle to the Mississippi, in 16S3, by Father Gravier, a Catholic missionary among the Illinois, and was the capital of the Illinois country, so long as the. French continued in possession of it. In 1763, it was ceded by France to Great Britain. In 1778, the fort on the east side of the river was taken by Col. George Rogers Clark. After this, and until within a few years, the town gradually declined. It is now in a flour- ishing condition. The houses are scattered over an extensive plain, and the greater part of them built of wood, in French style.
CHESTER, one miles below the mouth of the Kaskaskia river, in Randolph county, Illinois, is situated on an elevated strip of bottom land, at the foot of the bluffs. It is the depot for the interior country. It is a place of considerable importance, and contains a population of about eight hundred.
DEVIL'S BAKE OVEN, twenty-nine miles below, and GRAND TOWER, one-half mile below it.
These natural curiosities are thus described by Judge Hall, in his valuable work on " the West : " " Approaching from above, we first discover the ridge, throwing out a bold promontory into the stream, on the Illinois shore, on tho extreme point of which, is a large, round- ed mass of rocks, fifty or sixty feet in height, shaped like an oven, and thence termed the " Devil's Bake Oven." A low neck of land connects this with a range of perpendicular rocks, which frown in rugged precipices over the stream, and who.se summits are beautifully crowned with vegetation. As the current sweeps abruptly around this cape, another promontory is seen jutting out from the opposite shore. Against this the whole force of the current beats with fear- ful velocity, and, by its attrition, has worn it away, until a large frag- ment has been separated, and left standing in solitary grandeur, in the midst of the waves. This is the Grand Tower. Its height may be fifty feet, and its diameter about the same. Its contour is remark- ably exact and symmetrical, forming a column as nearly circular, as if its proportions had been marked out by the hand of art.' The sides are nearly perpendicular, but the different strata distinctly mark- ed out. The whole has ihe appearance of a regular column, whose height is equal to its diameter. The top is flat, and supports a stratum of soil, which gives birth to a short but rich growth of trees and shrubs.
" In our early history, this was a noted spot. The river boats, which, before the application of steam, were propelled up the stream with difficulty, by human labor, were unable to ascend this rapid pass with oars or poles. Not only was tho current too strong for this operation, but the danger of bein^ dashed against the rocks was imminent. To effect this object, it was necessary for a portion of the crew to
St. Qencvive \^
St. Gcnevivc I.
Saline Cr.
jary's R.
MISSISSIPPI. No 3.
Lacoarsea' L
86 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
land, and an opportunity was offered to the Indians to attack them, when the prospects of resistance or of flight were equally hopeless. Here, then, they formed their ambuscades, and many a crew was slain at this spot, to gratify the savage lust for plunder and revenge, while many boats were wrecked, by the violence of the waves." * * " The ' Devil's Tea Table,' and other appurtenances of the do- minion of his Satanic majesty, are found in this neighborhood.
" THE CORNICE ROCKS are great curiosities. The perpendicu- lar sides of the limestone precipices, have been worn by the water into irregular shapes, and, in some places, a continuous formation, re- sembling a handsome cornice work, may be seen, overhanging the cliffs, whose sides represent columns, and other architectural devices."
BAINBRIDGE, seventeen miles below, in Cape Girardieu county, Missouri.
HAMBURGH, opposite, in Union county, Illinois.
CAPE GIRARDIEU, ten miles below, in Missouri, in the county of the same name, is pleasantly situated on a high bank of the river. It is the principal depot for the southern part of the state. The coun- try around it is very fertile, and thickly inhabited, for forty or fifty miles back, to the New Madrid settlements.
COMMERCE, twelve miles below, in Scott county, Missouri.
OHIO CITY, twenty-eight miles below, opposite Cairo, in Missou- ri, is a small place, on a more elevated bank than Cairo. It is now in a flourishing condition, and bids fair to become a considerable town.
'O
ISLAND NO. 1, six miles below, behind which, in Kentucky, are the remains of Fort Jefferson, erected by Gen. George Rogers Clark, in the spring of L7S0. This fort was erected, by order of Governor Jefferson, of Virginia, in order to protect the navigation of the Missis- sippi, and securing it to that state, in which this territory was then included.
COLUMBUS, twelve miles below, in Hickman county, Kentucky. It contains several stores, and a population of about three hundred. Just above it are the Iron banks, extending along the river, on the same side, for about two miles. They derive the name from the color of the banks, resembling iron rust.
HICKMAN, or MILL'S POINT, twenty miles below, is the coun- ty-seat of Fulton county, Kentucky. It contains two churches, twelve stores, several of them forwarding and commission, and a large tobac- co stemmery. Large quantities of tobacco, corn, cotton, cattle, poul- try, &c, are annually shipped from here, it being the depot for the products of a large and fertile section of country. It is the starting point for the great stage route to Nashville. Population five hundred.
NEW MADRID, forty-four miles below, is the county-seat of New Madrid county, Missouri. It is situated on a high alluvial bank,
. e\ \ Dunkins Bar
Obrazo R
Grand Tower
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Sandy I.
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MISSISSIPPI
No. 4.
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Devils Is.
83 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
which the river is fast washing away. The population is about five hundred. This point is quite famous, from the ravages made by the great earthquake of 1811. The following description of this disas- trous event, is from the pen of Dr. Hildreth, of Marietta, Ohio, and copied in the Annals of the West, by J. H. Perkins:
" The center of its violence was thought to be near the Little Prairie, twenty-five or thirty miles below New Madrid — the vibra- tions from which were felt all over the valley of the Ohio, as high up as Pittsburgh. The first shock was felt in the night of the 16th of December, 1811, and was repeated at intervals, with decreasing vio- lence, into February following. New Madrid, having suffered more than any other town on the Mississippi, from its effects, was consider- ed as situated near the focus, from whence the undulations proceed- ed. From an eye-witness, who was then about forty miles below that town, in a flat-boat, on his way to New Orleans, with a load of pro- duce, and who narrated the scene to me, the agitation which con- vulsed the earth and the waters of the mighty Mississippi, filled ev- ery living creature with horror. The first shock took place in the night, while the boat was lying at the shore, in company with seve- eral others. At this period, there was danger apprehended from the Southern Indians, it being soon after the battle of Tippecanoe, and, for safety, several boats kept in company, for mutual defense, in case of an attack. In the middle of the night, there was a terrible shock and jarring of the boats, so that the crews were all awakened, and hurried on deck, with their weapons of defense in their hands, think- ing the Indians were rushing on board. The ducks, geese, swans, and various other aquatic birds, whose numberless flocks were qui- etly resting in the eddies of the river, were thrown into the greatest tumult, and, with loud screams, expressed their alarms, in accents of terror. The noise and commotion soon became hushed, and nothing could be discovered, to excite apprehension ; so that the boatmen con- cluded that the shock was occasioned by the falling in of a large mass of the bank of the river, near them. As soon as it was light enough to distinguish objects, the crews were all up, making ready to depart. Directly a loud roaring and hissing was heard, like the escape of steam from a boiler, accompanied by the most violent agitation of the shores, and tremendous boiling up of the waters of the Mississippi, in huge swells, rolling the waters below, back on the descending stream, and tossing the boats about so violently, that the men, with difficulty, could keep their feet. The sand-bars and points of the islands gave way, swallowed up, in the tumultuous bosom of the river, carrying down with them the cotton-wood trees, cracking and crashing, toss- ing their arms to and fro, as if sensible of their danger, while they disappeared beneath the flood. The water of the river, which, the day before, was tolerably clear, being rather low, changed to a red- dish hue, and became thick with mud, thrown up from its bottom; while the surface, lashed violently by the agitation of the earth be- neath, was covered with foam, which, gathering into masses, the size of a barrel, floated along on the trembling surface. The earth on the shores opened in wide fissures, and, closing again, threw the water, sand, and mud, in huge jets, higher than the tops of the trees.
Hickman Cy., Ky.
90 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
The atmosphere was filled with a thick vapor or gas, to which the light imparted a purple tinge, altogether different, in appearance, from the autumnal haze of Indian summer, or that of smoke. From the temporary check to the current, by the heaving up of the bottom, the sinking of the banks and sand-bars into the bed of the stream, the river rose, in a few minutes, five or six feet ; and, impatient of the re- straint, again rushed forward, with redoubled impetuosity, hurrying along the boats, now set loose by the horror-struck boatmen, as in less danger on the water than at the shore, where the banks threatened every moment to destroy them, by the falling earth, or carry them down in the vortices of the sinking masses. Many boats were over- whelmed, in this manner, and their crews perished with them. It re- quired the utmost exertions of the men, to keep the boat, of which my informant was the owner, in the middle of the river, as far from the shores, sand-bars, and islands, as they could. Numerous boats were wrecked on the snags and old trees thrown up from the bottom of the Mississippi, where they had quietly rested for ages ; while oth- ers were sunk or stranded on the sand-bars and islands. At New Madrid, several boats were carried, by the reflux of the current, into a small stream, that puts into the river just above the town, and left on the ground by the returning waters, a considerable distance from the Mississippi. A man, who belonged to one of the company boats, was left, for several hours, on the upright trunk of an old snag, in the middle of the river, against which his boat was wrecked and sunk. It stood with the roots a few feet above the water, and to these he contrived to attach himself, while every fresh shock threw the agita- ted waves against him, and kept gradually settling the tree deeper into the mud at the bottom, bringing him nearer and nearer to the deep, muddy waters, which, to his terrified imagination, seemed de- sirous of swallowing him up. While hanging here, calling with pit- eous shouts for aid, several boats passed by, without being able to re- lieve him, until, finally, a skiff was well manned, rowed a short distance above him, and dropped down stream, close to the snag, from which he tumbled into the boat, as she floated by. The scenes which occurred for several days, during the repeated shocks, were horrible. The most destructive took place in the beginning, although they were repeated for many weeks, becoming lighter and lighter, un- til they died away in slight vibrations, like the jarring of steam in an immense boiler. The sulphurated gasses that were discharged du- ring the shocks, tainted the air with their noxious effluvia, and s* strongly impregnated the water of the river, to the distance of one hundred and fifty miles below, that it could hardly be used for any purpose for several days. New Madrid, which stood on a bluff bank, fifteen or twenty feet above the summer floods, sunk so low, that the next rise covered it to the depth of five feet. The bottoms Of seve- ral fine lakes in the vicinity were elevated, so as to become dry land, and have since been planted with corn." Slight oscillations and shocks continued to be felt for years, along this region, and are even now occasionally experienced.
POINT PLEASANT, seven miles below, in the same county, is
Banks
MISSISSIPPI
No. 6.
fe \ Obioa Cy., Tenn.
92 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
a small settlement of six or seven houses. Large quantities of corn are shipped from this point.
RIDDLE'S POINT, three miles below, in the same county, is only a landing point, for goods, destined for the interior, and for the receipt of produce. The whole country, for miles, along the river, here, is extremely rich, yielding immense quantities of corn.
WALKER'S BEND, eighteen miles below. This is, simply, a large bend of the river, so named by the boatmen.
LITTLE PRAIRIE, seven miles below, in New Madrid county, Missouri. This is the point where, it is thought, was the center of the vibrations of the great earthquake.
NEEDHAM'S CUT-OFF, twenty-four miles below.
ASHPORT, eight miles below, is a small village in Tennessee.
OSCEOLA, twelve miles below, is the county-seat of Mississippi county, Arkansas. It is only a small village. This is just at the head of Plumb Point Bars, the most difficult and dangerous part of the Mississippi river. Scarcely a season passes by, without accidents here, and many steamboats have been sunk, portions of which are yet visible, in low water.
FULTON, ten miles below, in the same county, is a place of only , a few houses, and a landing point for the interior country.
RANDOLPH, ten miles below, in Tipton county, Tennessee, is rather a dilapidated town, at the head of the second Chickasaw bluffs, and at the mouth of Hatchee river. Large quantities of cot- ton are shipped from this place to New Orleans. Immediately oppo- site this point, is seen the first cotton plantation, in descending the river.
GREENOCK, forty-seven miles below, is a small village, the coun- ty-seat of Crittenden county, Arkansas.
MEMPHIS, twenty miles below, in Shelby county, Tennessee, is beautifully situated on the fourth Chickasaw blnff, just below the mouth of Wolf river. This spot was formerly the site of Fort As- sumption, used for the purpose of protecting the country against the Chickasaws, to chastise whom a French army of nearly four thous- and, white, red, and black, were gathered here. They remained in a state of inactivity, from the summer of 1739 to the spring of 1740. during which time, hundreds of them sickened and died, when in March of the last named year, peace was concluded. The blnff on which it stands, is thirty feet above the highest Hoods, and its base is washed by the river, for a distance of three miles, while a bed of sand-stone, the only known stratum of rocks below the Ohio, juts in- to the stream, and forms a convenient landing. From the Ohio to Vicksburgh, a distance of six hundred and fifty miles, it is the only site for a commercial mart, on either side of the Mississippi.
Obion Cy., Tenn
Dyer Cy., Tenn.
MISSISSIPPI
No. 7.
94 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
The appearance of Memphis from, the river, is very beautiful and imposing. Some distance from the brow of the bluff, a handsome range of fine buildings extends for several squares, and gives an air of business to it, which is manifested by few places of its size. This point has been selected by the United States government, for the erec- tion of a new Navy Yard, and the necessary buildings for that pur- pose are now in course of erection, on a large scale. The beautiful situation of Memphis, and its connection with a fine country, together with the great distance from any other point on the river, where a large city could be built, give it superior advantages in becoming a place of great importance. Immense quantities of cotton are grown in the interior country, and this is the principal mart and shipping point for it. One hundred and twenty thousand bales of cotton are annually shipped from this place. It contains, at present, six church- es, an academy, two medical colleges, a number of private schools, a large number of stores, some of them doing an extensive business, an office of the Magnetic Telegraph, and a population of ten thousand.
PICKERING, two miles below, in Tennessee, contains several commission houses, located here, on account of the good landing, which the river affords.
NORFOLK, eight miles below, is a small village in Mississippi.
COMMERCE, twenty-five miles below, in Mississippi, was laid out, some years ago, on a very large scale, and a railroad to the inte- rior commenced. It has not improved any, and contains only a few small houses. The railroad has been abandoned.
ST. FRANCIS RIVER, twelve miles below, in Arkansas, runs al- most parallel with the Mississippi for a great distance, and drains the lakes and swamps which are filled with its overflows.
CURRAN, or STERLING, is a small cluster of houses, at the lower side of the mouth of St. Francis river.
HELENA, twelve miles below, is the county seat of Phillips coun- ty, Arkansas. It contains one church, thirteen stores, one newspa- per printing office, three saw mills, and a population of about four hundred. There is a very handsome range of hills, immediately back of it— the only ones seen along the river for some distance. Consider- able cotton, brought down the St. Francis river, and from the interior country, is shipped from this place.
YAZOO PASS, or BAYOU, eight miles below, in Mississippi, connects the Mississippi river with the Yazoo river at this point, en- abling fiat-boats to pass through an immense section of fertile coun- try, to the latter river, a distance of nearly three hundred miles. Ex- tensive cotton plantations are opening on it.
DELTA, on the lower side of the mouth of the bayou, is a new village, containing fifteen or twenty houses. It is the county-seat of Choctaw county, Mississippi.
96 THE MISS] IFP-I BIVCR
HORSE SHOE BEND and CUT-OFF, eight miles below. This is a large bend of the rive;, so c . its resemblance to a horse-
shoe. A cut-off has been made across it.
MONTGOMERY'S POINT, fifty-eight miles below, in Arkansas, is the landing point for goods destined to the White river country. It contains only one or two houses.
VICTORIA, opposite, in Mississippi, is also a landing point for the interior country.
WHITE RIVER, four miles below, in Arkansas.
NAFOLEON, sixteen miles below, at the mouth of the Arkansas river, is a flourishing little place, and bids fair to become a town of importance. It is the depot and landing point for goods destined for, and for produce brought down, the Arkansas river.
ARKANSAS RIVER. This river, from which the state derives its name, Is, uext to the Missouri, the largest western tributary of the Mississippi. "The length of this mighty stream, which is said to meander a long distance in the Rocky Mountains, following its courses, is about two thousand miles. It pours a broad and deep stream from the mountains upon the arid and sandy plains below. The sand and the dry surrounding atmosphere absorb the water to such a degree, that in many seasons it may be forded many hundred miles below the mountains. Some of its tributaries are so impregnated with salt, as to render even the waters of the main stream unpotable. The alluvial earth along its banks contains so much salt, that cattle are said sometimes to be killed by eating it. To the distance of about four hundred miles from its mouth, it has many lakes and bayous. In high water it is navigable for steam-boats, as high up as Canton- ment Gil son, at the mouth of Grand river, by water seven hundred and fifty miles."
"LITTLE ROCK is situated about three hundred miles, by the course of the river, and about one hundred and twenty by land, above the mouth of the Arkansas. It is the capital of the state of Arkan- sas. It stands on the south bank, on a very high stone bluff, and has been ironically rvarrited Little Rock from the prodigious size and mas- ses of rock about it. The situation is healthy and pleasant, and be- ins the metropolis, a considerable village has grown up here. It has a court house, jail, and a printing office, from which is issued a weekl y newspaper."
BOLIV \R. C. H., thirteen miles below, in Mississippi, is merely a landing, formerly the place of a court house.
COLUMBIA, fifty-three miles below, is the county-seat of Chicot comi rkansas. It is a very pleasant looking place, containing
four or five stores, and a population of about two hundred and fifty- Here commences the great cotton growing region, and the banks of the river are almost one succession of plantations, with their hand-
WV.l'R. Mempki*
93 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
some clusters of negro quarters. Just below this commences the growth of the Spanish moss.
POINT CHICOT, four miles below, in Arkansas, was formerly the county-seat of Chicot county. It is now merely a fine plantation, with a large number of fine negro quarters.
GREENVILLE, four miles below, in Mississippi, is a small village.
BAYOU MASON, or GRAND LAKE LANDING, thirty miles below, in Yazoo county, Mississippi, is the landing point for the plantations on Grand Lake, a few miles in the interior.
PRINCETON, four miles below, in the same county, is a small village, containing about one hundred and fifty inhabitants. It is the landing point for the plantations on Lake Washington, five miles in the interior.
BUNCH'S CUT-OFF, ten miles below, is a cut-off, a short distance across the swamp, the river running around, in an almost circular form, eighteen miles.
LAKE PROVIDENCE, nineteen miles below, on the right, is the seat of justice of Concordia Parish, Louisiana. It is a very hand- some village, and has considerable trade, in shipping cotton and sup- plying the planters in the interior country- Population about three hundred. Just back of the town is the lake, from which it derives its name, on the banks of which there are a number of fine cotton plantations. On the opposite side of the river, there is a very large, fine plantation, with a number of houses and negro quarters, giving it the appearance of a town.
TOMPKJN'S SETTLEMENT, fifteen miles below, in Louisiana, is, as its name implies, a settlement of a number of planters, extend- ing along the river.
BRUNSWICK LANDING, fou/teen miles below.
MILLIKIN'S SETTLEMENT, twelve miles below, in Louisiana,
is a large settlement of planters.
Y^AZOO RIVER, eight miles below, in Mississippi. " The Yazoo river takes its rise in the north-eastern part of the state of Mississippi, and takes its name at the point of junction with it of the Yellabusha and Tallehatchee rivers, two hundred and sixty miles above its mouth. Laflone is the chief town at the mouth of Tallehatchee and Yallebusha and at the head of steamboat navigation ; however, there are small steamers running still higher up these tributaries, in high water. The country adjacent to this beautiful river, in a very few of the late years, has risen in agriculture and wealth beyond compar- ison. About ten steamers ply between Laflone and New Orleans, in the cotton season, as regular packets, passing the flourishing towns of Yazoo City and Tchula, the former one hundred miles and the
punn's Woodyard
St. Francis K. /i
'^Sterling or J Curran :::;::
MISSISSIPPI
No. 10.
100 THE MISSISSIPIl RIVEft.
latter one hundred and ninety miles from its junction with the IVlis- sississippi. Navigation on the Yazoo is safer than any other river in the south or west. The importance of the Yazoo country can hetter be judged by its productions of cotton — the number of bales coming out of that river annually is set down at one hundred and forty thousand.''
' WALNUT HILLS, ten miles below. " These beautiful hills, about two miles in extent on the river, rise boldly, though gradually, with alternate swells and gullies, to the height of nearly five hundred feet ; and being under the highest state of cultivation, form the most beauti- ful prospect to be met with on the lower Mississippi."
VICKSBURGH, two and one-half miles below, is the county-seat of Warren county, Mississippi. It is situated on a hill, the highest part of which is two hundred feet above high water mark. The principal business part of the city is situated on the bottom, along the river. It was incorporated as a town in 1825, and as a city, in 1836. The country surrounding it is a black loamy soil, well adapted to the cultivation of all kinds of grain, tobacco, cotton, &e. The principal product is cotton, of which seventy-five thousand bales are annually shipped from here. Within the few past years, Vicksburgh has been improving very rapidly, and the fine section of country, with which it is surrounded, as well as the beautiful site of the city, and the fine har- bor of the river (which is here from ninety to three hundred feet deep), all give it superior advantages, for a rapid and healthy growth. There is a railroad extending from it to Jackson, the seat of government, a distance of fifty miles. The city contains a court house, five church- es, three academies, a hospital, a theater, twelve schools, and two foundries, doing a good business. The population is abont five thousand.
The place became notorious, some years ago, for the summary pro- ceedings taken against the gamblers, who infested it to so great a de- cree, as to threaten the entire destruction of the welfare and morals of the community. A public meeting of the citizens was held, and warning given to all gamblers, who frequented the city, to remove, within a given time. They refused to do so, and manifested a deter- mination to overawe and break down public authority. The citizens thereupon united, and, having caught a number of them, removed them a shore distance from the city, and publicly executed several of them, by hanging.
WARREN TON, ten miles below, is a small village in Mississippi.
PALMYRA SETTLEMENT, fifteen miles below, in Mississippi.
CARTHAGE LANDING, four miles below, in Louisiana.
POINT PLEASANT, ten miles below, in Louisiana, is a landing point, with a few houses.
BIG BLACK CREEK, fourteen miles below. Here the river sud- denly turns to the right, occasioned by a high bluff point (rocky at
102 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
its base), about throe-quarters of a mile below the creek. This is cal- led the Grand Gulf. Two miles below, in Claiborne county, Missis- sippi, is the town of
GRAND GULF, very pleasantly situated, on an elevated bank, and enjoying- considerable trade in cotton, and also in supplies for the neighboring plantations. It contains two churches, a town hall, a hospital, a theater, a cotton press, a steam saw and grist mill, and a population of about one thousand.
BAYOU PIERRE, ten miles below, in Mississippi. Keel-boats can ascend this bayou, a great part of the year, as far as Port Gib- son, about twenty-eight miles from its mouth. Port Gibson is a very flourishing place, and the county-seat of Claiborne county, Mississippi.
BRUINSBURGH is a small place, on the lower side of Bayou
Pierre.
RODNEY, ten miles below, at the Petit Gulf, in Jefferson county, Miss., is situated just under the bluffs. Its progress, some years ago, was very rapid, and much improvement was made, but it has been reputed to be very unhealthy, and, of late years, it has improved but very little. It contains several stores, a fine steam saw mill, and a population of about five hundred.
NATCHEZ.forty-one miles below, was founded in 1700, by D'lber- ville, who had been sent out from France, to conduct the explorations begun by La Salle, but which had so unfortunately been terminated by his death. D'lberville proposed to found a city here, to be named, in honor of the Countess of Pontchartrain, Rosalie. In 1714, the fort, called Rosalie, was built on this spot, then occupied by the Nat- chez, a powerful and intelligent tribe of Indians, in the valley of the Mississippi. " They were fdolaters, worshipers of the sun, and had a temple and an altar, dedicated to that luminary, on which a perpet- ual fire burned. At first, they treated the French colonists with great kindness. In 1722, the Chickasaws gave them trouble, and attacked and destroyed a fort on the Yazoo. The friendly exertions of the Natchez saved the settlers. The next year, the commandant at Fort Rosalie treated them with indignity and injustice. The quarrel began between an old Natchez warrior and a soldier, about some corn. The Natchez challenged the Frenchman to single combat, who, in alarm, cried murder. The Natchez turned to depart from the camp, was fired on by the guard, and mortally wounded. No punishment was inflicted on the perpetrators, while, in other respects, the command- ant rendered himself odious to the Natchez. The murder of the war- rior aroused the whole tribe to seek revenge, and they attacked the French in all quarters, and killed many of them. At last the Stung Ser- pent, an influential chief, interposed his authority ; a treaty of peace was made, and former confidence restored. The peace served to lull the Natchez into security, and gave the French opportunity to meditate and execute one of the blackest acts of treacherw The Governor of Louisiana, Bienville, ratified the treaty, and, soon after, in a most cau- tious and dastardly manner, arrived at Fort Rosalie, with seven hun-
Ichoctaw Cy., Miss,
104 THE MISS I SS IP PI, RIVER.
dred men, and attacked and slaughtered the defenseless natives for four days. From this time, the Natchez despaired of living in peace with the French, and secretly and silently plotted their destruction. In 1729. M. de Chopart, the commander of the Fort, stung them to madness, by attempting to build a town, on the site of the village of White Apple, a large Indian town, situated about twelve miles below the city of Natchez, and three miles from the Mississippi, and which they regarded as a sacred place. He ordered their huts to be removed, and the Indians to leave the village. Among the fruitful expedients to gain time, till they could unite the warriors of the nation, and de- vise means to take vengeance on their enemies, they proposed to give the French commandant, each, one fowl and one basket of corn, for permission to remain till harvest. They held frequent and secret councils amongst themselves, and invited the Chickasaws to join them. Notwithstanding their secrecy, one of their chief women sus- pected the plot, and revealed it to a soldier. Still, M. Chopart disre- garded the warning. The plot being matured, on the 3d of Novem- ber, 1729, the Grand Sun, with his warriors, repaired to the Fort, with the tribute of corn and fowls. They rushed into the gate, disarmed the soldiers, and commenced an indiscriminate massacer. The slaves and a few of the women and children were saved. All the men were murdered. Not a chief or warrior would stain his hands with the blood of M. Chopart. and one of the meanest of the Indians was or- dered to kill him with a wooden tomahawk". The settlement con- tained about seven hundred French, of whom a very few, only, es- caped. The forts and settlements on the Yazoo and Wachita shared the same fate. The news of this massacer filled New Orleans with alarm and dismay ; but M. Perier, the commandant, was very active in devising the means of redress. The French gained the Chicka- saws to their side, who furnished fifteen hundred warriors, which were met, in the neighborhood of Natchez, with a detachment of troops from New Orleans, under command of M. Loubois. The Natchez ex- pected to be attacked, and had strongly fortified themselves in the Fort. They professed to be desirous of peace, and much finesse was em- ployed on both sides. At last the Natchez contrived to desert the Fort at night, and, loaded with plunder, they crossed the Mississippi, and returned to a position on Red river, a few miles below Nachito- clies. Here they erected a fort. M. Perier having received a rein- forcement from France, marched a strong force, with artillery, against them. They defended themselves bravely, made several desperate sallies, but were repulsed with great slaughter. Their defense and attempts to negotiate a peace, were all in vain, and they finally sur- rendered at discretion. The women and children were reduced to slavery, and dispersed among the plantations. The remnants of this ence powerful nation were finally sent to St. Domingo. Thus per- ished the most enlightened, civilized, and noble tribe of this conti- nent. A few fugitives, who escaped the massacer, fled to the Chick- asaws and Creeks, and became amalgamated with those tribes.
" We have already stated, that the religion of the Natchez was idol- atrous. One of their customs was barbarous. On the death of a Chief, or Sun, as they were called, and on some other occasions, hu-
hlSSISSIPP
No. 13.
106 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
man sacrifices were offered. Their chief suns were invested with absolute power, and there were inferior suns, that constituted a kind of subordinate nobility. The Natchez are represented by different authors as just, humane, and ready to extend relief to objects of dis- tress. Charlevoix, who spent some days with them, in 1721, gives various details of their manners, customs, and religion. He states that on the death of a chief, or sun, his nurse, and, frequently, his body-guards, to the number of one hundred, or more, were put to death," that he might be followed to the 'spirit land' with a retinue, equal to his rank on earth. Besides the sun and fire, they worshiped little wooden gods, in the shape of monkies and rattlesnakes, placed on the altars."
Such is the interesting account given of the habits and destruction of this powerful tribe, by Judge Peck, in his sketches of the Missis- sippi valley.
The ruins of Fort Rosalie were visible in 1S23, at which time the city contained seven hundred inhabitants.
"This city is romantically situated on a very high bluff of the east bank of the river, and is much the largest town in the state of Mississippi. The river business is transacted in that part of the city which is called 'Under the Hill.' Great numbers of boats are always lying here, and some very respectable merchants reside in ibis part of the city. The upper town is elevated on the summit of the bluff, three hundred feet above the level of the river, and commands a fine prospect of the surrounding landscape. The country on the eastern bank is waving, rich, and beautiful, the eminences presenting open woods, covered with grape vines, and here and there neat country houses. This part of the town is quiet; the streets broad ; some of the public buildings are handsome: and the whole has the appear- ance of comfort and opulence. Many rich planters live here ; and the society is polished and respectable. It is the principal town in this region for the shipment of cotton, with bales of which, at the proper seasons of the year, the streets are almost barricaded ; and it is the market for the trade of the numerous population of the contigu- ous country. Notwithstanding the elevation, and apparent healthi- ness of the city, it has often been visited by the bellow Fever. It is owing to this circumstance that the population does not increase so fast as might be expected from its eligible position. It is at present supposed to contain about one thousand five hundred houses, and about eight thousand inhabitants. It has three churches, a handsome court, house, four banks, two book stores, three printing offices, and the usual number of' mercantile stores."
There are several extensive (ounderies and manufactories in suc- cessful operation, and much attention has been given, within the few past years, to the manufacturing of engines, cotton presses, sugar mills, and other articles, winch tend greatly to increase the wealth and improvements of the city. Natchez was visited, in 1840, by a tremendous tornado, which swept through (lie city, with great destruc- tion, destroying many vi the finest buildings, and leaving all in its path a mass of ruins. It has now. however, recovered from this shock, scarcely any vestiges of which can be seen.
Yazoo Cy„ Miss.
108 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
ELLIS'S CLIFFS, a high ridge of land, eighteen miles below, and extending- for some miles along the river, on the Mississippi side.
HQMOCHITTO RIVER, twenty-six miles below.
LOFTUS HEIGHTS and FORT ADAMS, ten miles below. A fort was erected here, in early times, a few ruins of which only remain.
RED RIVER, upper mouth, eleven miles helow. This is one of the most consideral tributaries of the Mississippi ; and as little is gen- erally known concerning it, the following accurate and authentic de- scription is extracted from the excellent geography of Mr. Flint, lately published :
"It takes its rise in a chain of hills near Santa Fe, in New Mex- ico, called the Caous mountains. In its upper course, it receives the waters of Blue river and False Washita. It winds through a region of prairies, on which feed droves of buffalo, cattle, and wild horses. These immense prairies are of a red soil, covered with grass and white vines, which bear the most delicious grapes. It receives a great many tributaries, that water an almost boundless region of prairies, forests, bottoms, and highlands. Much of this country is exceedingly fertile, and capable of producing cotton, sugar-cane, grapes, indigo, rice, tobacco, Indian corn, and most of the productions of the more northern regions. The width of its channel, for four hundred miles before it enters into the Mississippi, does not correspond with its length, or the immense mass of waters which it collects in its course from the Rocky Mountains. In high waters, when it has arrived within three or four hundred miles from its mouth, it is often divided into two or three channels, and spreads into a line of bayous and lakes, which take up its superabundant waters, and are a con- siderable time in filling, and prevent the river from displaying its breadth and amount of waters, as it does in the high lands, five hun- dred miles above. About ninety miles above Natchitoches, commences what is called the Raft, which is nothing more than an immense swampy alluvial of the river, to the width of twenty or thirty miles. The river here, spreading into a vast number of channels, frequently shallow, of course, has been for ages clogging up with a compact mass of timber and fallen trees, wafted from the regions above. Be- tween these masses, the river has a channel, sometimes lost in a lake and found again by following the outlet of that lake back to the pa- rent channel. There is no stage of Avater in which a keel-boat, with an experienced pilot may not make its way through the Raft. The river is blocked up with this immense mass of timber, a distance, by its meanders, of between sixty and seventy miles. There are places where the water can be seen in motion under the logs. In other places, the whole width of the river may be crossed on horse-back. Weeds, flowering shrubs, and small willows, have taken root upon the surface of this timber, and flourish above the waters. It is an impediment of incalculable injury to the navigation of this noble river, and the immense extent of countrv above it. There is probably no part of the United Stales, where the unoccupied lands have higher
renton
MISSISSIPPI No. 15.
HO THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
claims from soil, climate, intermixture of prairies and timbered lands, position, and every inducement to population, than the country above the Raft ; where the river becomes broad, deep, and navigable for steamboats, in moderate stages of water, for nearly one thousand miles toward the mountains. The state of Louisiana has made an effort to have it removed, and the general government have made an appropriation, and caused an inquiry and survey to be made for the same purpose. The valley of this interesting river has a width of throe or four miles, as high as Kiamesia, nearly one thousand miles from its mouth. It broadens as it slopes toward the Mississippi, and has, for a long distance from its mouth, a valley from six to eighteen miles in width. Of all the broad and fertile alluvials of the Missis- sippi streams, no one exceeds this. It compares in many more points, with the famous Nile, than the Mississippi, to which that river has so often been likened.
"ALEXANDRIA is situated on the south bank of Red River, half a mile below the falls, at the mouth of Bayou Rapide, seventy miles by land, and one hundred and fifty following the course of the river, from the Mississippi. It is the seat of justice for the parish, has a bank, a newspaper, a number of stores, &c. It is central to the rich cotton country of Bayous Rapide, Robert, and Bosuf.
NATCHITOCHES is eighty miles above Alexandria. It is the lost town of any size toward the south-western frontiers of the Uni- ted States. The Spanish trade, for a considerable distance into the interior of the Mexican states, centers here ; and it is the great thor- oughfare for people going to a,id returning from those states. It is a very old town, having been established above one hundred years ago. It is considerably larger than Alexandria. The population is a mix- ture of American, Spanish, and French. It is at present a growing place, and will probably one day become the largest town in this country, except New Orleans. There are many respectable families here ; and the opulent planters have houses in the town, for the sake of society. The people are excessively fond of balls and dancing. It has a pleasant society, and a weekly newspaper, in French and Eng- lish. The relations of this "place with the immense country on the river above, and with the interior of the Spanish country, must ne- cessarily be extended. It is beautifully situated on the shore of the river, and extends back to the pine blurts, on which there are already some handsome houses. It is at the head of steam-boat navigation.
sl
This place has experienced the successive regimes of the savages, the Spanish, French, and Americans, and has had its war dances, fan- dangoes, French balls, and American frolics. The traces of the an- cient grave-yard are almost erased. Indians, Spanish, French, Amer- icans, Catholics, and Protestants, lie here in mingled confusion.
" Two or three leagues west of Natchitoches, is the ancient Spanish town of ADA YES. We can see no where in the United States so fair a sample of an ancient Spanish town, as this. The houses are of the construction of a hundred rears ago. A little old church, with three or four bells, some of fhem cracked, and some coarse
m
112 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
paintings, give the church an air in keeping with the town. The in- habitants are all Spanish."
BAYOU ATHCAFALAYA, or CHAFFALIAR, as it is generally called, is about three miles below Rod river, on the right. At high water, there is considerable of a draft into the Chaffaliar.
RACCOURCI CUT-OFF, ten miles below. This is a new cut- off, which has been made in April, 1848. The river bends around a distance of about twenty miles. The cut-off was made across the neck of the bend, and is about half a mile long— thus shortening the distance of the river nearly twenty miles.
BAYOU SARA, thirty miles below, in Louisiana, is a noted placo- for descending boats, and great quantities of cotton are shipped down it. The country through which it runs is rich, thickly settled, and well cultivated.
ST. FRANCISVILLE, a short distance below, is the county-seat of West Feliciana parish, Louisiana, and is a place of considerable trade. A portion of the town is built on the plain, along the river, but the greater part is on a beautiful hill, immediately back. There are several extensive warehouses and stores fronting on the river, and here, also, is the depot for the rail road, running to Woodville, Mis- sissippi, by which, immense quantities of cotton are brought from the plantations in the interior. That portion of the town on the hill, is beautifully situated, and contains many fine buildings. The popu- lation is about one thousand five hundred.
POINT COUPEE, on the opposite side, is a wealthy French set- tlement, extending some miles along the river.
WATERLOO, six miles below, is a very beautiful settlement, sit- uated in the midst of fine plantations. Population, about one hun- dred and fifty.
PORT HUDSON, five miles below, is a small place, situated on the White Cliffs.
THOMAS'S POINT, thirteen miles below.
BATON ROUGE, twelve miles below, situated in East Baton Rouge parish, is the capital of Louisiana. It is handsomely situated on the last bluff that is seen, in descending the river. The site is thirty or forty feet above the highest 'overflow of the river. The bluff rises from the river by a gentle and gradual swell, and the town, as seen from the river, in the months when the greatest verdure pre- vails, rising so regularly and beautifully from the banks, with its sin- gularly shaped French and Spanish houses, and its green squares, looks like a finely painted landscape. It is one of the most beautiful and pleasantly situated places on the lower Mississippi.
The U. S. Government has here an extensive arsenal, with bat- racks for four hundred soldiers, and a fine hospital. The barracks are built in fine style, and present a handsome appearance from the
a
Point Coupee.
114 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
river. From the esplanade, the prospect is" delightful, commanding a great extent of the coast, with its handsome houses and rich culti- vation below, and an extensive view of the back country at the east. There is here, also, a land office of the United States, a court house, the Penitentiary of the State, four churches, an academy and college, and a splendid building is now in course of erection, for a State House. The population is about three thousand.
BAYOU MANCHAC. or IBERVILLE, fifteen miles below, is an outlet of the Mississippi, on the east side, uniting with Amite river, which falls into lake Maurepas. It is navigable for small vessels, only three months in the year.
IBERVILLE, a small town in Iberville parish.
BAYOU PLACQUEMINE, eight miles below, on the righ't side, affords the best communication to the rich settlements of Attakapas and Opelousas. It is navigable for small vessels, for some miles in the interior, and its banks are lined with splendid sugar and cotton plantations.
PLACQUEMINE, just below, is a beautiful town, with some fine houses. Considerable trade with the surrounding plantations is car- ried on here. It contains a population of about six hundred.
CHURCH OF ST. GABRIEL (commonly called Manchac church), ten miles below, on the left.
BAYOU LA FOURCHE, twenty-four miles below, on the right. This bayou is well settled, on both sides, for nearly thirty leagues. It affords another communication to the Attakapas and Opelousas set- tlements.
DONALDSONVILLE, just below the mouth of the bayou, was the former capital of the state of Louisiana. It is the seat of justice for Ascension parish. The place is very pleasantly located, and has some fine buildings, among which are the court house, U. S. arsenal, State House, U. S. land office, &c. It is a place of considerable trade and wealth, and while the capital remained there, was improv- ing rapidly. The removal of that to Baton Rouge will, of course, operate much against the prosperity of the place. The population is about one thousand two hundred.
CONTRELLE CHURCH, seventeen miles below, on left side.
BONNET QUARRE CHURCH, twenty-four miles below, on right side.
RED CHURCH, sixteen miles below, on left side. These three latter places are churches, with considerable settle- ments around them, situated on fine plantations.
CARROLTON, nineteen miles below, is a very thriving place, and rapidly improving. It is the residence of many business men of New;
W. Baton Rouge,
116 THE MISSISSIPPI EiVER.
Orleans, from which place, a distance of seven miles, there is a raii road, with good passenger cars running every few minutes in the day and evening. There is, at Carrolton, a most beautiful public garden, laid out in fine taste, and a hotel attached, with ample accommoda- tions for visitors. This is the daily resort of hundreds from the city, during the spring, summer and fall months, and affords a most agree- able treat for all, from the heat and bustle of the city. Here, among beautiful flowers, thick shrubbery, and finely laid out walks and ar- bors, with the thick branches of green trees filled with the innume- rable bright plumaged and melodious singing birds of the south, one may spend a day, almost oblivious of the near vicinity of that great city, with its thousands of inhabitants, gathered from all countries under the sun. The population of Carrolton is about one thousand.
NEW ORLEANS, seven miles below, in the great bend of the Mississippi, which is here in the shape of a crescent, is the principal city in the south, and the third commercial mart of the United States. The city stands on a level, marshy piece of ground, about from two to four feet below the level of the river, at high water mark, which is prevented from overflowing, by a levee, or embankment. A traveler is struck, on entering the city, " with the old and narrow streets, the high houses, ornamented with tasteful cornices, iron balconies, and many other circumstances, peculiar to towns in France and Spain, and pointing out the past history of this city, fated to change its mas- iers so often/' The newer parts of the city are, however, built more on the American style, the streets being wide and regularly laid out. Many of the dwellings are built in a style of magnificence and beauty, that will rival those of any city — while the beautiful grounds attached to them, filled with the luxuriant foliage of the south, give to them an air of comfort and ease, which are seldom enjoyed in a city. There are, in the city, six public squares, laid out with taste, inclosed with handsome fencing, and adorned with a variety of trees and shrubbery. These afford a pleasant retreat from the heat and glare of the streets, and tend, also, to improve the health of the city. The old city is built in the form of a parallelogram. The city consists of this part, the suburbs of St. Mary's, Annunciation, and La Course, called Fauxbourgs (to which may be added, also, the city of Lafay- ette), above the city, and the suburbs of Marigney, Dounois, and De- clouet, below the city, and Treme and St. John's, in the rear. The whole city is divided into districts, of which there are three, called municipalities. The city, including the fauxbourgs and La Fayette, extends along the bank of the river five miles, and backward, to the distance of half a mile. It is one hundred and five miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and is easily accessible, at all times, for large ships from the sea, which are towed up by steamboats. New Orleans has, probably, twice as much boat navigation above it, as any other city on the globe. By means of the basin, the canal, and the Bayou St. John, it communicates with Lake Ponchartrain, with the Florida shore, with Mobile, Pensacola, and the whole Gulf shore. It also communicates, by means of the bayous Placquemine and La Fourche, with the Attakapas country, and has many other communications, by
118 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
means of the numerous bayous and lakes, with the lower parts of Louisiana. Its wharves may be seen, at all seasons of the year, lined with all kinds of craft, rough fiat-boats, which have traveled from the Alleghanies, with lumber, or from further west, with provisions, &c.; steamers, from the hundred navigable rivers, which flow into (he Mississippi ; ships and schooners, from all quarters of the globe, here meet, to land the productions of all climes, and bring together the inhabitants of all countries, colors, and languages. The commerce of New Orleans is already very great, and, "if we can read aright, it will be the greatest commercial city in the world, when time shall have fulfilled the promises of the present, and every acre is reclaimed from the dominion of the forests and lakes of the Mississippi valley, and made available for cultivation. Now, when this great event is only in progress of realization, its commerce is gigantic: how im- mensely great must it be on the consummation of what is in reserve." The greater part of the business is transacted during the months, be- tween October and June. Daring the summer, the city is generally unhealthy, and is visited by that scourge, the Yellow Fever, which carries off thousands of its inhabitants. This has, no doubt, retarded the growth of the city, much ; but may it not be entirely overcome, in a few years, when the scientific efforts, which are now being used, to dry the innumerable swamps in its vicinity, shall prove successful? During the winter and spring, the climate is generally reputed healthy, and thousands Hock here from ah quarters of the world — some for health, others for pleasure, and still more in connection with the im- mense business of all kinds which is here transacted. In 1841-2, the property imported to New Orleans was estimated at $35,76-1,477. In December, 1843, there were six hundred ships in port here, at one time, taking freight from all parts of the world. The exports for that year are estimated at $50,000,000. In 1845, the value of imports from the interior of the United States, alone, was estimated at $57,- 199,122; 1846, $77,193,204; 1847, $90,033,256. From this, some idea may be formed of the business transactions of the city. The public buildings of the city are constructed, many of them, in a large and beautiful style. The new custom house, now in course of erec- tion, on the site occupied by the old one, on the corner of Canal street and the Levee, will be, when completed, the finest building of the kind in the United States.
Much has been said against the morals 4 I New Orleans. But here are numerous churches, all of which a* as well attended as those of any city in the Union. The police is acknowledged to be the most perfect of any city in the United States, and the perfect stillness and order, which pervade the city at night, is a matter of observation by all. In no city, of the same extent, is the protection of person and property more complete than here. In point of public charity, it may well challenge competition. The numerous hospitals, public and pri- vate, which afford comfort and assistance to the sick and destitute, are a fine commentary on the benevolent feelings of the community. To enumerate all the places of interest in the city, would be, per- haps, too tedious; we will content, ourselves with a few of them: The Cathedral is a massive building, dating back to 1790. In its ap-
%
120 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
pearance, one is carried back to a date, far beyond its real age. It forcibly calls to mind some of the old cathedrals in European lands, which have existed for ages. The Hospital of St. Louis, the court House, the United States' Mint, the Post Office, the Merchants' Ex- change, the Episcopal Church, on Canal street, the Barracks, the Char- ity Hospital, the Convent of Ursuline, the College of Orleans, the St. Charles and Orleans Theaters, the St. Charles Hotel, St. Louis Hotel, and Verandah, &,c, are all splendid buildings, which would do credit to any city.
There are three railroads leading from the city — one intended to ex- tend to Mobile, twenty-five miles of which are finished, leading past the battle-ground ; one to Lake Ponchartrain, distance, five miles ; and the other to the Carrolton gardens, seven miles. All these, and the fine shell road, leading to Lake Ponchartrain, afford fine excursions to those who wish to escape a few hours from the city. Opposite New Orleans, and connected with it by a ferry, is the town of Algiers, the principal workshop of the city. Here are several extensive ship- yards, and numerous artizans, engaged in building and repairing ves- sels. A short distance above it is the United States' Marine Hospital, a splendid building, used for the purpose its name designates. Not- withstanding the reputed unhealthiness of New Orleans, it has in- creased in population very rapidly. It was incorporated, in 1804, as a city, and, in L810, had a population of seventeen thousand two hundred and forty-two; in 1820, twenty-seven thousand one hun- dred and seventy-six ; in 1830, forty-six thousand three hundred and ten; 1835, seventy thousand, exclusive of from forty to fifty thou- sand strangers, during the winter ; and, at present, it is computed to be one hundred and fifty thousand.
The cemeteries of New Orleans are visited by almost every stran- ger who remains in the city any length of time. There are several of these, which are laid out in a handsome manner, the most celebra- ted of which are the " French Cemetery" in the city, and " Cypress Grove Cemetery," about three miles out on the Shell road, leading to Lake Ponchartrain. The taste' and elegance displayed in many of the vaults, and the constant attention manifested, to show respect for the memory of departed friends, are truly gratifying to the finer feel- ings of our nature. On account of the marshy state of the soil, it is impossible to dig graves, as a foot below the surface, they would be filled with water. To obviate this, the tombs are built entirely above ground, and well cemented, with apertures just large enough for a single coffin, and rising up, in many instances, to the the height of three or four tiers. In some cases, these are encased in a marble wall, and in others stuccoed, as it may suit the taste and means of surviv- ing friends. The walks between the vaults are covered with beau- tiful white shells, from the sea beach ; and along the edges of them may be found almost every variety of shrubbery and flowers, which grow so luxuriantly in the south. These cemeteries are free to all visitors ; and none who visit the " Crescent City," should fail to pay a visit to these "cities of the dead." The early history of New Or- leans, and its connection with the discovery and settlement of the Mis- sissippi valley, is a very interesting item, in the history of our country'.
Battle-ground
122 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
In 1718 (Louisiana then being under the dominion of the French), colonics were sent from Europe, who laid out New Orleans with great ceremony. This colony was under the direction of John Law, the noted financier. The Mississippi company, under Law, received their charter in 1717, and it granted them the exclusive right of trading in the Mississippi country, for twenty-five years, with the mo- nopoly of the Canada beaver trade. In 171S, the monopoly of trading in tobacco was also granted them. In 1719, the exclusive right of trading in Asia and the East Indies, and, soon after, the farm- ing of the public revenue, together with the extension of all these rights to the year 1770 — and, also, the exclusive right of coining for nine years. They also had the grant, formerly given to Crozat, but resigned by him, of an exclusive monopoly of Louisiana, for fifteen years, and the absolute ownership of whatever mines might be opened, for this was, in fact, the great object of all the explorers of the Mississippi country. They relied, not so much on the fertility of the soil, as the immense wealth that would be realized from the rich mines of precious metals, which they hoped to find. In 1717, about two thousand subjects of the Western Duchy embarked from Europe, under the direction of the company. In 1720, the company failed, and the Germans, thus deserted, dispersed into different portions of the country. Large sums were advanced by the crown to uphold the company, and much expended for military protection against the In- dians. But all failed to keep it up. In 1731, the government ob- tained a judgment against them, of twenty millions of francs, to cancel which, the entire property and privileges were re-conveyed. In 1721, the Council General was removed from Biloxi to New Orleans. In January, 1722, Charlevoix, writing from New Orleans, says : <:If the eight hundred fine houses, and the five parishes, that were, two years since, represented by the journals as existing here, shrink now to a hundred huts, built without order; a large wooden magazine; two or three houses, that would do but little credit to a French vil- lage: and half of an old store house, which was to have been occu- pied as a chapel, but from which the priests soon retreated to a tent, as preferable — if all this is so, still, how pleasant to think of what this city will one day be, and, instead of weeping over its decay and ruin, to look forward to its growth to opulence and power." " The best idea you can form of New Orleans, is to imagine two hundred persons, sent to build a city, but who have encamped on the river bank, just sheltered from the weather, and waiting for houses. They have a beautiful and regular plan for this metropolis ; but. it will prove harder to execute than to draw."
For many years after, the colony thrived but slowly. In April, 1763, France, by a secret treaty, ceded Louisiana to Spain. Of this. the French on the Mississippi, were not informed for more than a year afterward. Five years after, the Spanish captain-general, Don Antonio D'Ulloa, arrived. The colony was so much dissatisfied at the transfer, that the successor of D'Ulloa, O'Reilly, deemed it neces- sary, for the preservation of peace, to have three thousand troops at New Orleans, and six of the principal citizens were hung, and five officers of the crown shot. In 17C5, many of the inhabitants aban-
Johnsons tJ =
MISSISSIPPI No. 23
Fort St. Phillip
124 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
doned the city, and retired to St. Domingo, preferring to obey the laws and customs of France, rather than of Spain. In 1769, the city was first scourged by the Yellow Fever. In 1778, a fire broke out, by which nearly one thousand houses were destroyed. In 1785, the population was four thousand seven hundred and eighty. In 1795, the King of Spain permitted New Orleans to become a depot for American produce, for three years, and it continued, by mutual con- sent, until October 16th, 1802. On the 1st of October, 1800, a treaty was signed at St. Ildefonso, between France and Spain, by which Louisiana was to bo conveyed to Napoleon. This was confirmed, and reiterated in the treaty of Madrid, March 21st, 1801. France thus became master, a second time, of this territory.
Buonaparte, to prevent the English from making a conquest of this territory, determined to sell it to the United States. Without any knowledge of this intention, President Jefferson despatched Mr. Mon- roe, to negotiate for the island of Orleans.
On arriving in France, Mr. Monroe was surprised to learn that the French determined to sell the whole of Louisiana ; and the only mat- ter to be settled was the amount to be paid for it. On the 30th of April, 1803, the treaty of cession was signed by the commissioners, by which, the United States gave eighty millions of francs, for the territory, deducting twenty millions for spoliations upon our commerce. When the deeds of transfer were signed, the Commissioners, Barbii Marbois, Mr. Livingston, and Mr. Monroe, were so transported with joy, that they rose, and grasped each others hands with the utmost enthusiasm. Mr. Livingston is said to have exclaimed — " We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our lives. The treaty which we have just signed, has not been obtained by art, nor dic- tated by force. Equally advantageous to both parties, it will change vast solitudes into flourishing districts. The United States will re- establish the maritime rights of all the world, now usurped by a sin- gle nation. The instruments we have just signed, will cause no tears to be shed. They prepare ages of happiness for innumerable generations of human creatures." Napoleon, with his own hand, drew up articles, guaranteeing protection to property, and the enjoy- ment of liberty and a free religion. In the conclusion of it, he says : " Let the Louisianians know, that we separate ourselves from them with regret; that we stipulate in their favor, every thing which they can desire ; and let them, hereafter, happy in their independence, re- collect that they have been Frenchmen, and that France, in ceding them, has secured for them advantages, which they could not obtain from an European power, however paternal it might have been. Let them retain for us sentiments of affection ; and may their common origin, descent, langunge, and customs, perpetuate the friendship." " The Spaniards were now required to execute the treaty of St. Ilde- fonso. They, accordingly, delivered the forts and posts on the Mis- sissippi, to Monsieur Laussat and his agents, on the 30th of Novem- ber, 1803. The reign of France was short and provisional. On the 26th of December, the French Prefect, the American Governor, Clai- borne, and General Wilkinson, commanding the United States' troops, who had entered the city, as the Spaniards embarked, assembled at
126 THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
the City Hall. Laussat made a formal transfer of the province, and Claiborne received it, in execution of the treaty.
" While this ceremony was passing in the Hall, the American flag was brought to the foot of the flag-staff, at the top of which floated the colors of France. As one rose, the other descended, and, meet- ing midway, remained some moments, mutually entwined. When the flag of the Union rose in the air, the Americans could no longer suppress their shouts of joy ; but the French guard, alive to the scene, expressed the deepest regrets, and, as a last homage to the il- lustrious banner of their country, the leader wrapped it around his body, and paraded the streets, at the head of his troops, and, finally, deposited this symbol of the power and glory of France, with the iate Prefect, M. Laussat."
On the 20th of May, Congress divided the territory of Louisiana into two territories, attaching the upper part to Indiana. On the 20th of January, 1812, the State of Louisiana was formed, by adopting a republican constitution.
In August, 1814, Col. Nichols, the British commandant at Pensa- cola. issued an address to the citizens of Louisiana and Kentucky, stating that he was at the head of a large body of Indians,' &c, com- manded by British officers, with a large train of artillery, seconded by a numerous squadron of British and Spanish ships, and vessels of war ; and calling upon all to second him in his efforts in crushing the Americans — -giving notice, that a flag over any door, Spanish, French, or British, would be a certain protection".
Shortly after this became known, on the 15th of September, a meeting of the citizens of New Orleans was held, and they deter- mined to support, to the extent of their abilities, the authority of the government, and the honor of the American arms. A committee of safety was appointed to assist the Governor, in providing the neces- sary measures for the defense of the city, and a proclamation issued to the citizens. On the 21st of September, a proclamation was issued by Genl. Jackson, calling upon them to assist in defending their coun- try, and to form a battalion, or regiment, of their own, for this pur- pose. This was, accordingly, done, and the command of it given to Major Daguin, a highly respectable citizen of New Orleans. On the 9th of December, Genl. Jackson arrived at the city, from the inspec- tion of Fort St. Philip, and, in connection with Governor Claiborne, invited the co-operation of the Legislature, in fortifying the city. Pursuant to his recommendation, the Legislature instructed the Gov- ernor to call into public service, for this purpose, the negroes of the par- ishes of Placquemine. St. Bernard, St. Charles, and St. John the Baptist. On the 5th of December, a British fleet, of eighty vessels, appeared off Pensacola fort. On the 9th, two of these vessels were discovered, steering toward Lake Borgne. On the 14th, an engagement took place, between five of the American vessels, and forty n>e of the British boats, in which the British lost several boats, and about three hundred killed and wounded. The loss of the Americans was six killed and ihirty-five wounded. The contest lasted for over two hours, and the Americans only surrendered, when the enemy had gained their decks, and overpowered them by numbers.
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER * 127
On the 15th, Gen Jackson reviewed the troops at New Orleans, and addressed them in language calculated to arouse all their ardor and patriotism. At this time, the Legislature, was in session in the city, and, to prevent communication with the enemy, and the protection of spies and traitors, with whom the country was filled, he applied for a suspension of the act of habeas corpus. This proposition was rejected. On the 16th, he suspended their councils, by declaring the city and its environs under martial law; and required every person entering the city, to report himself to the Adjutant General, tinder penalty of arrest, and permitted none to depart from it, or pass beyond the chain of sentinels, but by permission of the commanding General, or one of his staff'.
A few days after, Judge Hall, by a habeas corpus, undertook to in- terfere with a military arrest. General Jackson immediately ordered him beyond the camp. For this act, on the return of peace, ihe Judge imposed a fine of one thousand dollars on the General. The ladies of New Orleans raised the money, and tendered it to him, to discharge the fine ; but he refused, and ordered that it be distributed among the widows and orphans of those who had fallen in battle. Tins fine was subsequently repaid him by Congress.
On the morning of December 23d, the enemy effected a landing at the junction of Bayou Bienvenu and Lake Borgne, surprised the guard there stationed, and hastened forward toward the Mississippi. This they reached, about nine miles below New Orleans. Genl. Jack- son determined to attack them that night. Having formed a junction with Col. Hayne, he learned from him the position of the invaders, and a plan of attack was instantly concerted. Commodore Patterson was directed to open upon them from the schooners, which was to be followed by a battle, was;ed on all sides. The astonishment and con- fusion of the British, when attacked by the Caroline, cannot be de- scribed. The Americans troops did not amount to two thousand ; while those of the British were four or live thousand. Of the Ameri- cans, twenty-four were killed, one hundred and fifteen wounded, and seventy-four made prisoners. The killed, wounded and prisoners of the British, amounted to nearly four hundred. About four o'clock in the morning the Americans withdrew, not thinking it prudent to haz- ard a fight, by day, against such great odds. This battle saved New Orleans, as it prevented, entirely, the progress upon the city, which the British confidently thought they would be able to make, with- out a successful resistance. Frequent skirmishes took place, during Several succeeding days, between advanced parties of the two ar- mies ; but without great loss on either side.
Both armies, about the 30th of December, commenced vigorous preparations for a battle, on a swampy piece of ground, called the l< Plains of Chalmelte" about six miles below the city. Both were waiting, with great anxiety, for reinforcements. On the 4th of Jan- uary, the reinforcement from Kentucky, amounting to two thousand two hundred and fifty men, under the command of Major General Thomas, arrived; but they were illy provided with arms.
Information was also received, that Major General Lambert, with a considerable reinforcement, had joined General Packenham.
128
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
The position of the American army was in the rear of an intrench- ment, formed of earth, and which extended, in a straight line, from the river to a considerable distance within the swamp. Cotton bags were made use of, to strengthen and defend the embrasures along the line.
For six days had the two armies laid on the same field, and in full view of each other, without any decisive movements being effected. The hum of preparation was still going on, each determined to gather up all their strength, for a decisive and final struggle. On Sunday morning, the 8th of January, the signal of the enemy, for concert in their movements, was descried, and instantly their charge was made, mid the fire opened with heavy cannon, and showers of bombs and balls poured on the American army. The two divisions under com- mand of Sir Edward Packenham, supported by Generals Keane and Gibbs, pressed forward. Slowly and steadily the columns advanced toward the American line. Behind their parapets, all was silent, un- til the British army had reached a convenient distance, when a deadly fire was poured into them, from the long line of the Americans, which mowed them down by hundreds.
A few of them pressed forward through the deadly fire ; but the army was wavering, and thinking of flight — when Sir Edward Pack- enham hastened to the front, to encourage and inspire them with zeal. He soon fell, mortally wounded. Generals Gibbs and Keane also fell, and were borne from the field, dangerously wounded, and the army precipitately retreated. The battle continued, at different points, for upward of one hour, when the enemy were cut to pieces, to a degree almost unprecedented, and fled in confusion, leaving their dead and wounded on the field of battle. The loss of the British was seven hundred killed, fourteen hundred wounded, and five hun- dred taken prisoners — making a total of two thousand six hundred. The American loss in the engagement was seven killed and six wounded. The attack was not renewed, and, shortly after, the Brit- ish left the coast.
Thus was New Orleans preserved from the attack of that army, whose cry, in marching to its attack, was " Beauty and Booty."
The battle-ground presents no particular attraction in its appearance, being a low swampy piece of ground, and pretty nearly in the situa- tion in which it was before the battle. It is a spot, however, which will always be interesting to every American, from the glorious strug- gle there made by his countrymen, against an invading foe. It forms an almost classic spot, where one may gaze, and recall to mind acts of noble heroism, that would dignify the most glorious battle-fields of the world.
Table of Distances from St Anthony's Falls to Galena.
Fort Snelling, Minnesota Ter.,
Si. Peters,
St. Paul,
Little Crow Village (Presbyterian Mission),
Red Rock Prairie,
Gray (JloUd Island,
Point Douglas, and Mouth of St. Croix River,
.Stillwater (up St. Croix), 30 miles.
Red Wing Village,
Lake Pippen,
Chippeway River,
Nelson's Landing, Wisconsin,
Oratt's do. ~ Minnesota,
Hone's do. Wis.,
Wabashaw's Prairie, and Village, Iowa,
7 Mount Trombabe, Wisconsin, 15
1 Prairie La Cross (Mouth of Black River), Wis., 25
6 Winnashlk (Trading Post), 50
4 Camel Isle Bluff, 10 11 Praine DuChien, Wis., 30
5 Fort Crawford, 1 15 Wisconsin River, 3
Gottenburgh, Iowa, 15
30 Prairie La Porte, Iowa, 6
10 Oassville, Wis,, 10
25 Perue, Iowa, and Siniper, Wis., 23
1 Pouisi, Wis., 18
2 Dubuque, Iowa, 12 38 Fever River, 29 10 Galena, HI., 7 miles up Fever River,
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